fJass BX 5^ 20 
Rnnk , C 4 

S28 



Jm 4 ^^ sermons, 4*ik«#u^ 



UPON THE 



MINISTRY, WORSHIP, AND DOCTRINES 



OF THE 

PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 

AND 

OTHER SUBJECTS, 



BY T. CHAPMAN, H. D. 

RECTOR OF CHRIST CHURCH, LEXINGTON* 



LEXINGTON, K: 

PRINTER BY SMITH AND PALMER, 

1828. 



i 



***** 



1^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.) 

District of Kentucky, ) T0 WIT * 

BE it remembered, that on this twenty-seventh day of October, 
in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty- 
eight, and in the fifty -third year of the Independence of the United 
States, George T. Chapman, of the said District, hath deposited 
in this office, the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as 
author, to wit : 

" Sermons, upon the ministry, worship, and doctrines of the Protestant Epis- 
" copaLChurch, and other subjects, by G. T. Chapman, D. D. Rector of Christ 
" Church, Lexington." 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " An 
act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts 
and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times there- 
in mentioned." And also the act entitled " An act supplementary to the act 
entitled "An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing; the copies of 
maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during 
the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of de- 
signing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." 

JOHN H. HANNA, Clerk of the District of Kentucky, 




TO THfi 

RIGHT REV. JOHN HENRY HOBART, D. D, 

bishop of new-york, 

as a cordial tribute of esteem for his talents and learning of 
veneration for his piety and benevolence ; of applause for the unwea- 
ried zeal and ability displayed by him, in discharging the arduous 
duties of the apostolick office; and of admiration for the fervour 
and devoted ness, with which he has identified his own pious deter- 
mination, with the inspired vow of isaiah, " for zlon's sake will i not 
hold my peace, and for jerusalem's sake i will not rest, until the 
righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation 
thereof as a lamp that burneth 

This volume is respectfully inscribed, 

BY THE 



AUTHOR 



PREFACE. 



IN submitting this volume to publick inspection, my mo- 
tives appear in the body of the discourses, and to them the reader is 
referred, instead of being solicited to wade through a tedious preamble. 
Had I consulted mere literary reputation, their publication would 
have been delayed. My parochial and academical* duties have 
made such large demands upon my time, that to the composition of 
each discourse, I was unable to devote more than the labour of a 
single day, and the whole have been committed to the press with no 
alterations, and very few additions. I do not present them as fault- 
less specimens of style. In this aspect, neither do I challenge the 
severity of criticism, nor do I deprecate it. As no man is compelled 
to become an author, if he will write, let him be prepared to meet 
the consequences. It is better, that he should receive a little whole- 
some chastisement, than that his works should contribute in any 
degree to vitiate the publick taste. The writer makes no humilia- 
ting appeals to the sympathy or forbearance of reader or critick. 

It was at the suggestion of a highly valued friend, that the sermons 
upon the Church were prepared, and their delivery was accompa- 
nied with repeated requests for publication. I have complied. With 
what judgment, time will show. It has not been with reluctance. 
A mind, unstable as water, may well sit down and count the cost,- 
attending the utterance of dubious speculations,- but he must be the 
veriest coward, who is afraid to preach and to publish what he sol- 
emnly believes to be true, lest, for combating the errours, he should 
be obliged to endure the censures, of the many. I know not, that 
the present discourses will be deemed worthy of a reply. Care 
however has been taken to notify me, in a formal manner, that such 
was the intention. Be it so. When a temperate answer appears, I 
hope to embark in the subsequent discussion with benevolent and 
charitable feelings. I know, that I shall do it, in all the confidence 
of a certain faith, that the leading facts and arguments, presented 
in this volume, are utterly incapable of being refuted. Every thing 



V* 



plausible, that can be alleged in opposition, is perfectly familiar to 
my mind, and I have no difficulty in pledging myself to its exposure, 
wherever reason is permitted to triumph over prejudice, and reli 7 
gion over party. I only ask of my worthy Christian brethren of 
other denominations ; those, whom I esteem for their piety, I only 
ask, that they raise not the shout of victory, until the battle is won. 

The miscellaneous discourses have been selected in haste, from 
a large number written at different periods. I am apprehensive, 
that the choice of subjects may not have been as judicious as my 
friends could wish j but such as they are, let them be considered 
the humble offering of my head and heart in the glorious cause of 
Christ. If a favourable opinion should be formed of them, by the 
publick, they will, with the divine permission, be followed by others^ 
embracing more extended views of Christian faith and practice. 

Lexington, Qct. 29, 1828 v 



I 



CONTENTS* 



SERMON I— XX. 

Isaiah lxii. 1— For Zion's sake will I not hold my £eace, and 
for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness 
thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as 
a lamp that burnetii. Page 1 — 258 



SERMON XXI. 

2 Corinthians Hi. 17.— Where the Spirit of the Lord is, 
there is liberty. 259 



SERMON XXII. 

Romans xiv. 22. — Happy is he that condemneth not himself 
in that thing which he alloweth. 270 



SERMON XXIII. 
Acts xxvi. 28. — Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. 280 

SERMON XXIV. 

Luke xiii. 24. — Strive to enter in at the strait gate ; for many, 
I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 289 



SERMON XXV. 

I Corinthians vii. 29, 30, 31. — But this I say, Brethren, the 
time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives 
be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though 
they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced 
not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And 
they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion 
of this world passeth away. 301 



viii 



SERMON XXVI. 

Acts xxvi„ 8.— -Why should it be thought a thing incredible 
with you, that God should raise the dead? 312 



SERMON XXVII. 

Acts xvii. 11. — These were more noble than those in Thes- 
salonica, in that they received the word with all readiness 
of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those 
things were so. 323 

SERMON XXVIII. 

Revelation ii. 4. — Nevertheless I have somewhat against 
thee. 333 

SERMON XXIX. 
Amos vi, 1. — Wo to them that are at ease in Zion. 344 



SERMON XXX. 

Matthew xi. 28. — Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 355 



SERMON XXXI. 

2 Timothy iii. 4.— Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of 
God. 365 



SERMON XXXII. 

James ii. 19, 20. — Thou believest that there is one God; thou 
doest well : the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt 
thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? 375 

SERMON XXXIII. 

Revelation xiv. 11. — And the smoke of their torment ascend- 
b eth up for ever and ever, 38(> 



SERMON I. 



isaiah lxii. 1. 

For Ziotfs sake will 1 not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

THE prophet, in the commencement of this chapter, breaks 
forth into the mos sublime eulogy, and indulges in the liveliest an- 
ticipation of the future glory of the Church of Christ. He predicts 
the arrival of the period, when all nations should have cause to 
rejoice in her. " The Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all 
Kings thy glory." He bestows upon her no fulsome or vain pane- 
gyrick. " Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the 
Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God." He describes 
the final prosperity, which is to attend her. " Thou shalt no more 
be termed Forsaken ; neither shall thy land any more be Desolate ; but 
thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah : for," and he 
here gives the signification of these terms, " for the Lord delightef h 
in thee, and thy land shall be married." He foretells the ardent love, 
which should be borne her by the ransomed of the Lord, and the 
Lord himself. " For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall 
thy sons marry thee : and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the 
bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." He unfolds the future 
anxiety of her ministers to extol and glorify her and her bride- 
groom Christ, until she become the praise of all the earth. " I have 
set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold 
their peace day nor night." The Lord hath proclaimed unto the 
end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy saK 
nation cometb j behold, his reward is with him, and his work before 

A 



2 



him. And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed 
of the Lord : and thou shalt be called, Sought out ? A city not forsa- 
ken." 

These however, Brethren, are predictions, that as yet, are only" 
in part fulfilled. The bridegroom has indeed come, and with him 
his bride, the Church, She has put on her beautiful garments, and 
furnished abundant evidence, that she is " all glorious within." 
And still the world lieth in wickedness, still the great mass of 
mankind know nothing of the spouse of Jesus, they have not come 
to the wedding supper of the Lamb, they have not penetrated into 
her bridal chamber, her more brilliant triumphs, her more extend- 
ed .conquests over the hearts of the sons and daughters of men have 
yet to ensue. They have yet to bow before her shrine, and enable 
her as a chaste bride to present unto her Lord, " the heathen for 
his inheritance 5 , and the .uttermost parts of the earth for his posses- 
sion y 

When these glorious things, which are spoken of her, the city of 
the living God, are to be fully realized, I know not, I pretend not 
to unravel that web of prophecy, which completely shuts out the 
future from the ken of mortal eyes, so far as precise dates, and 
times, and seasons are concerned. But this I know, that in con^ 
fident expectation of these things, such confidence as was produced 
by divine inspiration, Isaiah looked down the long track of inter- 
vening ages to their accomplishment, and even at the remote peri- 
od, in which he lived, determined with the most ardent zeal to? 
contribute all in his power to effect it ; all in his power to hasten, 
as it were,, the approach of that truly auspicious era, when all 
from the greatest to the least should be pervaded with the know- 
ledge of the Lord, and be able to " say unto Zion, thy God reign - 
eth." Hear his own solemn and impassioned vow. " For Zion's 
sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not 
rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the 
salvation thereof as a lamp that burnem." 

And I require no better authority to justify a similar vow on the 
part of the present watchmen upon the walls of the Church,. the 
present Stewards of the manifold grace of God. The lapse of time 
should inflame rather than cool their ardour in a cause, so holy 
• and so good. As every day brings us nearer and nearer the con- 
summation devoutly implored by the faithful in Christ Jesus, when 



i 



the full-orbed splendour of the Sun of Righteousness shall shine 
upon the nations, and bring them out of darkness into marvellous 
light; so should there be greater and greater anxiety to be count* 
ed of God worthy of this calling, to fulfil all the good pleasure of 
iris goodness and the work of faith with power. 

As one of the most important preparatory steps, I have ever con= 
sidered a closer union and harmony among Christians to be emi- 
nently desirable. For a long, long time they have exhibited to the 
wondering eye of angels a sad and melancholy spectacle, Their 
divine Lord and Master enjoined, that they should love one another: 
but no people wrangle more. It was his counsel, that they should 
attend to the weightier matters of judgment, mercy, and faith; but 
no Jews were more tenacious of the mint, anise, and cumin of the 
law. It was his command, that they should learn of him to be meek 
and lowly in heart; that they should not judge, lest they be judged ; 
but no Pharisee could have looked down upon a publican with 
greater disdain and self complacency? than the disciples of Jesus 
now do, upon each other's attainments in the graces of religion. " I 
am holier than thou," is their most prominent motto; the spirit it 
engenders enters into all their actions, and furnishes but too much 
reason to the enemy to blaspheme and say, " See those Christians 3 
how they hate one another." 

And now I ask you for the cause ? The leading cause of this 
strange and unnatural antipathy existing among those professing the 
same faith, having the same common Master, and looking to him 
alone for the mercy of God unto eternal life ? You will reply, that 
it is to be traced to the region of the heart, to its still proverbial 
corruption, its wonderful inclination to retain something of its 
original taint; as if it were possible to be too wise, too holy, and too 
happy here below, And I acknowledge the justice of that reply ; I 
have no idea of attempting to controvert it. "Out of the heart," 
says our Saviour, " proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, for- 
nications, thefts, false witnessj blasphemies ; These are the things 
which defile a man." 

And yet it is apparent, that as in the natural, so in the moral 
world, secondary causes are continually producing their good and 
their bad effects. And in this point of view, was the question 
already suggested, proposed to me, I should and I do answer, that the 
immediate active cause of all that dissention and disunion^ so pre* 



4 



valent among Christians, is to be referred to gross departures from 
primitive, Apostolick, and therefore divine institutions. They have 
proved the fruitful source of all errour in doetrine, and all errour 
in life and practice. They have made the multitude wiser than 
God, and the Christian part thereof wiser than Christ. How 
often, for example, do we hear natural religion preferred to 
revealed, by men who have found out, that while nature neve? 
contradicts herself, the scriptures, in the mouths of their warmest 
advocates, are made to speak variant doctrines and to inculcate 
opposing practices ! How often do we hear it asserted by men, of 
whom better things might be hoped, that the separation of Chris- 
tians into different denominations is decidedly favourable to the 
advancement of religion, and the spread of the Redeemer's king- 
dom! I agree to the sincerity of their belief. I am far from in- 
tending to charge them with wilfully entertaining opinions hostile 
to the enlarged prosperity of Zion. But where do they get them ? 
Where have they thus found out the mind of God I To the law 
and the testimony : Show me some authority from them, and I may 
be induced to credit what I am now forced to consider visionary 
fancies and unfounded assertions. Show me, that God approved 
the separation of the ten tribes from those of Judah and Benjamin, 
and the establishment of a new Church, in which the priests of the 
house of Levi had no office and ministry. Show me, that Christ 
highly applauded the divisions subsisting between the Pharisees, the 
Sadducees, and other Jewish sects during his eventful life. Show 
me, that the Apostles commended the schism of the Gnosticks, the 
Nicolaitans, and those, who in their time perished in the gainsaying 
of Core. Show me this, and I will bow with reverence to the word 
of inspiration ; I will rejoice in the countless multitude of religious 
sects, which exist in the present age. 

But every attempt to point out such commendation would be 
utterly fruitless and vain. It is no where to be seen in the sacred 
volume; it is no whereby anticipation applied to the future, to a 
state of things resembling our own. Christ Jesus our Lord never 
says, Divide ye yourselves, my Brethren, into divers parties and 
denominations. In this way, ye shall the more successfully build 
up my Church, and add to it daily of such as shall be saved. On 
the contrary, he tells them, that " there shall be one fold and one 
shepherd."" He directs this prayer to heaven in their behalf* 



6 



" Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast 
given me, that they may be one, as we are." He submits this 
strong and conclusive argument to prove the necessity of union and 
concord, " Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to deso- 
lation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." 

Nor did the Apostles inculcate different sentiments. When they 
went about evangelizing the world, they did not set up, as our 
modern reformers, the Church of John, the Church of Peter, the 
Church of James, and from these names bestow distinct appella- 
tions upon their several disciples. All these things have been the 
result of a new flood of light, unknown to them, as it was to the 
Master whom they served. They rather discountenanced all 
schism with as much zeal as they discountenanced all heresy. Ye 
cannot fail to remember how solemnly St. Paul, in particular, re^ 
monstrated with the Corinthians on this subject. How affection- 
ately and earnestly he delivered unto them this counsel ; " Now, 
I beseech you, Brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions 
among you ; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same 
mind, and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto 
me of you, my Brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, 
that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every 
one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, 
and I of Christ. Is Christ divided ? Was Paul crucified for you ?" 
And in a subsequent chapter he rebukes them in these terms; 
"Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye 
believed, even as the Lord gave to every man ? I have planted, 
Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then, neither is 
he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth ; but God that 
giveth the increase," 

And do you desire better evidence than this, brethren, to convince 
you of the danger of schism, and the extreme fallacy of imagining 
that our numerous Christian sects have a happy tendency in pro- 
moting the interests of religion? Paul does not condemn those 
Corinthians for imbibing unsound and heretical doctrines; such as 
are contrary to the true faith of Christ in the judgment of the 
feiodern orthodox. He speaks of them as believers. He says to 
them " All things are yours. And ye are Christ's, and Christ is 
Crop's." But for this he does condemn them, For this he does call 



fheft) carnal. For commencing those very separations and di- 
visions which are now so highly extolled. For doing precisely 
what Christians do in modern times; saying, lam of Calvin; and I 
©f Minister; and I of Wesley; and I of Fox; with innumerable 
others. Christians, who in this particular, take no warning from 
the explicit language of Paul; who never hear his yet whispering 
voice, emphatically asking, — " Is Christ divided? Was Calvin, or 
Minister, or Wesley, or Fox, crucified for you?" 

I know, brethren, that I am now treading on tender ground, But 
the times require, that I should speak out plainly and directly. It 
can never with justice be said of me, that I would gladly lay an inter- 
dict on the indulgence of an)' doctrines, or on the expression of 
any sentiments. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind, 
and according to that persuasion, let him preach, rebuke and ex- 
hort. He shall receive no abuse, no molestation from me. And 
what I accord to others, I claim for myself. The liberty wherewith 
Christ hath made us free. The liberty of honestly entertaining', 
and honestly and charitably publishing my own views of Christian 
doctrines and Christian institutions, without being accountable to 
any human being, but to God alone. I do not question the pi- 
ety of numerous individuals, belonging to Churches of human 
origin and invention, I do not assert, for my own conscience would 
condemn me if I did, that they cannot become the heirs of eternal 
life. I am rather sensible, that the Apostle applies to those divi- 
sions and parties, which existed among the Corinthians this re- 
markable expression; "If any man's work shall be burned, he 
.->hall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire." 
And hence I abjure the thought of consigning to everlasting per- 
dition large bodies of men, numbers of whom I am happy to believe 
ii\ r e under the influence of the divine grace, and evince great 
advances in faith and holiness. But at the same time, this does 
not convince me, that there is no such sin as schism, however ig- 
norantly it may be indulged. It does not abstract from the scrip- 
tures nor from my faith, that memorable admonition of Paul, " there 
should be no schism in the body," and again, "ye are the body of 
Christ, and members in particular;" that body, which he else- 
where terms " the Church," and affirms of Christ, that " he is its 
head." 

No, no, I have no conception, that liberality and candour towards 



7 

others imply, that we must embrace their errours, and renounce 
m their favour truths, which have their foundation in the wisdom 
of God, and that are revealed to us and our children, that we may 
embrace them with a ready mind and in the confidence of a certain 
faith. I rather look for divine authority in things, which may have 
been originally indifferent, and when I discover this r it is as obligato- 
ry upon me, in relation to the external, as it is to the internal concerns 
of the gospel. If Christ directed water to be used in baptism, it 
is not to be relinquished for another fluid. If he employed bread 
and wine, as symbols of his crucified body and blood, and com- 
manded them to be taken in remembrance of him ; they are not to 
be abandoned for other substances; although, in either case, I am 
not prepared to say, that a person baptized with milk, or commun- 
ing upon flesh and milk could not therefore be received up into 
glory. 

And this train of reasoning is equally applicable to the Church 
of Christ. If he, by his Apostles, has established one, giving it 
such distinct and characteristick marks, that it may be clearly 
discerned, and easily found, it is not for man to cast it aside, and 
relying upon his own wisdom to proceed in forming another and an- 
other, just as caprice inclines, and peculiar views and partialities 
preponderate. Nor is that a good and valid argument to justify 
such a course, which appeals to human sympathy and asserts, we 
are all aiming at the same result; all these different roads termin- 
ate in the same heaven; we shall agree there, however we may dis- 
agree here. I am rather of the prophets mind ; " Speak Lord, for 
thy servant heareth." I wish to learn what God himself hath or- 
dained, and if the bible tells me this, I have no faith in the words 
or the things, which man's wisdom teacheth, I have no faith, that 
he can improve upon the gospel or upon the Church of Christ. 

We are told by some, that there is no such being as the devil, and 
no such place as hell ; that the Son of God was but a mere man 
and that there is no virtue whatever in his alleged sacrifice and 
propitiation for sin. But with me, one word from God destroys all 
these human fancies, and I am ready to exclaim with an Apostle ° r 
" Let God be true and every man a liar/ We are told by others ; 
Our Church is as good, ay, it it is better than yours; it has discarded 
those higher orders of the clergy, which lord it over God's heritage, 
mid has banished all those popish forms and ceremonies^ which yqu 



g 



so perversely retain. But when I look into the bible, and find it 
to be the very Church established by the very God and the very 
Christ ; I call to remembrance the words of David ; "If I forget 
thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do 
not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth ; 
if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy." I am animated, 
as I trust, by the same spirit, which dwelt upon the lips, and glow- 
ed within the heart of Isaiah. "For Zion's sake will I not hold 
my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the right 1 
eousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as 
a lamp that burnetii." 

Too much, indeed, of worldly wisdom appears to exist among 
Christians. The children of light have succeeded in becoming as 
wise, in their day and generation, as the children of this worlds 
Nothing is more common than to hear them talk of pleasing men. 
more by this method than by that, of adopting new paths rather 
than the old, because they harmonize more with the prevailing im- 
pulse of publick opinion. It is not so much what God says and 
Christ says ; but what will the publick say, how will the publick 
think, and what probability of success is to be entertained, not 
from relying upon God ; but from yielding, to a greater or less de- 
cree, to the known prejudices and infirmities of men. Our Saviour^ 
for example, enjoins upon his disciples ; " Take heed that ye do not 
your alms before men to be seen of them ; otherwise ye have no re- 
ward of your Father which is in heaven." " But when thou does! 
alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth ; That 
thine alms may be in secret : and thy Father, which seeth in se- 
cret himself shall reward thee openly." But now, as if entirely 
dissatisfied with this divine regulation, long lists of charitable 
donors to missionary and other societies, are continually published 
to the world, on the ground of expediency ; on the ground of en- 
couraging others to give from the expectation of having their names 
as generally known and extensively circulated. But for my part, 
Brethren, I do most solemnly protest against these implied improve- 
ments of the word of God. It is doing evil, that good may come 
out of it. It is but a new version of the old doctrine ascribed to 
the papists, that the end sanctifies the means. I am the advocate 
of missionary, the advocate of bible societies; but let them be con- 
ducted in strict conformity to the plain injunctions of the scriptures, 



9 



Vnd without that manifest distrust of Providence, which such mca= 
sures do not fail to indicate. 

Similar remarks apply to female exhibitions in publick. They 
are becoming more and more common, and are supposed to produce 
better and better effects. In vain does the Apostle in his epistle to 
the Corinthians require ; " Let you. women keep silence in the 
Churches : for it is not permitted unto them to speak ; but they are 
commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if 
they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home ; for 
it is a shame for women to speak in the Church." The rule is often 
transgressed without fear and without compunction. Paul's au- 
thority is regarded as little as his Master's. We have enthusiasts, 
who arrogate to themselves the right of rejecting the express words 
of scripture. Policy is their plea, although every sober and re- 
flecting mind must be satisfied, that the only true policy in reli- 
gion is to be found in reverent obedience to the oracles of God, even 
when they give directions apparently inimical to its increased pros- 
perity. " My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways 
my ways, saith the Lord." 

And these sentiments I cherish to the same extent in relation to 
the primitive Church. Founded by its divine head, I can never 
consent to abandon it for any, that have grown up within the memo- 
ry of man, or whose claims to antiquity are bounded by the history 
of two or three centuries. I can tell you the fallible men, by whom 
they were devised, the places where they were first established, and 
the gradual progress they have made in stealing away the hearts of 
the people from the one only Bride of Christ. But for her, if ye 
wish to learn her origin, ye must go to the gospels and epistles. 
She has her foundation upon the Rock of Ages, and other foundation 
can no man lay than that which is laid. She may be despised and 
rejected of men ; it was the fate of the bridegroom himself. But 
let them do this, or whatsoever else it may please them ; they can 
never induce him to repudiate her. They can never prevail with 
him to accept a second bride, in preference to " the Church," which 
" he loved and gave himself for it ; That he might sanctify and 
cleanse it by the washing of water by the word ; That he might 
present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, 
or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." 

From these observations, Brethren, you must perceive, that the 

B 



to 



present discourse is merely introductory to a series upon the sami : 
subject, which I propose to deliver on the morning of as many sab- 
baths, as may be necessary to complete them, and in which I design 
to give as condensed a view as possible of the Apostolick Church, at 
whose altar it is my happiness to minister. Those features I mean, 
which serve to distinguish her from the various protestant denomina- 
tions of our country. By the divine blessing, I will prove from the 
scriptures her divine origin. I will show, that her three orders in 
the ministry, and particularly the Episcopal order, spring from the 
same holy and unerring wisdom. I will endeavour to convince you, 
that in some other important particulars, such as the holy rite of 
confirmation, and the use of precomposed forms of prayer in the 
publick worship of God, she conforms closely to the pattern ot 
heavenly things, exhibited in the sacred volume. 

Nor shall I omit the testimony of the Christian fathers : of those 
men, who either lived in company with the Apostles, Or who suc- 
ceeded them in the ministry during the first centuries of the Chris- 
tian era. Many of their writings yet remain, and from them it will 
appear, that no other Church, but our own, was ever heard of, by 
those who first believed in Christ, They maintained the same prin- 
ciples of ecclesiastical authority and government, which are main- 
tained bv us, They had the same three orders of bishops, priests, 
aiid deacons in the ministry, and of these, bishops alone possessed 
the power of ordination. It was neither claimed, nor exercised by- 
others. It would have been deemed unscriptural and unauthorized ; 
a usurpation of power never granted by the great Head of the 
Church, and therefore conferring none of the attributes of his min- 
isters, no authority to preach the word, or administer theordinances- 
of the gospeL 

In performing this service, in which it wul be necessary to exam- 
ine every" supposed objection, to recur to the records of history, and 
to speak freely, though I hope discreetly and advisedly; I shall be- 
guided by a sense of duty, by a desire to put you in possession of 
everv material fact required to arrive at a correct decision in your 
own minds, and by the expectation of its contributing in some de- 
gree, however slight, to the prosperity of a Church, built upon the 
foundation of the Apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
corner stone. It ought not to excite unpleasant feelings in any 
bosom. It is not intended to excite them. My great object is. to 



II 

inculcate the principles of the Church among those, who compose 
my own congregation. Religious controversy I ever have and ever 
shall deprecate. Bat the fair, open, manly, and peaceable investi- 
gation of truth must not be denied to the Christian minister, 
and this I shall adopt and pursue in a manner as unexceptionable 
as my own infirmities and the nature of the subjeet will allow. It 
certainly does lead me to the conclusion that ministers, who are not 
episcopally ordained, are acting as such, without any lawful au- 
thority ; but this has always been the doctrine of the Church, and 
as is also contended, the doctrine of the Apostles and primitive 
Christians. Whether I shall be able to satisfy you on these points 
must be left to your own future judgment. In the mean time give 
me your patient attention, and be determined to embrace the truth 
as it is in Jesus, however it may comport with or contradict opinions 
already formed. 

Amid the multitude of sects into which the mystical body of 
Christ our Saviour is now rent and divided; a circumstance so 
foreign from his doctrine, and so opposed to the holy counsels of 
his Apostles ; it surely must be an object Of extreme solicitude to 
every honest and sincere believer in him, to ascertain where his 
ministers rightfully exercise the functions of the priesthood ; where 
they rightfully preach, and baptize ? and celebrate the supper of the 
Lord. You shall know, so far as my humble powers and diligent 
examination will allow me to promise. It is a topick to which I 
have already devoted many hours of calm, dispassionate study, an$ 
the result has confirmed me in the opinion, that schism is the great- 
est curse of Christendom ; that it is attended with more fatal con- 
sequences than the united attacks of infidelity and vice, and that 
the world will never be converted to Christianity, until its present 
professors discard their existing animosities and divisions, and cor- 
dially unite together in the Church, which is thus described by St„ 
Paul ; " There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called 
in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism." 
" For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we 
be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free," 

May God therefore of his infinite mercy direct us into that 
Church, whether it be Presbyterian, or Baptist, or Methodist, or 
Episcopal. May he possess all Christian people with light to dis- 
cern, and readiness of mind to embrace it. Tke wounds of many 



12 



festering hearts would be healed. The jealousies of many bit to 
partisans of rival standards would subside. The joy of all the 
faithful and godly in these denominations, and many of other com- 
munions would abound. Peace and order would be substituted for 
rancour and strife, for confusion and every evil work. In due 
time, the heathen would hear of it and be glad. The news would 
be wafted upon the wings of the wind. Messengers of grace and 
love would carry it to them in every direction. There would be 
none to molest or to make them afraid, convinced as all men 
would necessarily be, by this happy fulfilment of the sure word of 
prophecy; convinced as all men would be, that the Lord God Om- 
nipotent reigned, that the Zion of his beloved Son was indeed de- 
serving the praise of the whole earth, and that " her righteousness 
ought to go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that 
burnetii,"- Amex. 



SERMON II. 



isaiah lxii, 1 

For Zion's sake will I not Jwld my peace, and for Jerusalem's sa'kt 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness* 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

THE ardent affection and zeal for the welfare of Zion and 
Jerusalem, expressed in these words by the prophet Isaiah, combin- 
ed with the object of these discourses, already announced, render it 
proper to remark, that the two names are equally applicable to the 
Church of the living God. 

Zion signifies, " a monument raised," " a heap of stones set up;" 
Jerusalem, " the vision of the perfect or of the pacifick," " the vision 
of peace, or the possession, or the inheritance of peace." The 
latter name was given to the city of David, which contained the 
temple of the Lord God of Israel, and the former was applied to the 



lb 



mountain upon which it was built, « Beautiful for situation, the 
joy of the whole earth," says the Psalmist, " is Mount Zion, on the 
sides of the north, the city of the great King. God is known in her 
palaces for a refuge.* 5 Its application to the Jewish Church per- 
vades the old testament, and in the new, the Apostle Paul applies it 
from Isaiah to the Christian ; " As it is written, Behold I lay in 
Sion a stumbling stone, and rock of offence : and whosoever believ- 
eth on him shall not be ashamed.' 5 He also speaks of" Jerusalem 
which now is, 55 and of "Jerusalem which is above; 55 in this manner 
designating the Church militant and the Church triumphant. 

In perfect coincidence with the language and feelings of Isaiah, 
I may therefore express the warmth of my attachment, to what I 
believe to be the true Apostolick Church, in his own devout and 
fervid vow; "For Zion 5 s sake will I not hold my peace, and for 
Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go 
forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burn- 
etii. 55 

The scriptures of the new testament are, indeed, full of encomi- 
ums upon the organized society of the disciples of Jesus, which is 
there emphatically described as the Church. Having reminded you 
of several upon the last sabbath, I shall merely recite upon the 
present occasion, the solemn declaration of our Lord to one of his 
Apostles; " And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter; and 
upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it, 5 ' The object is not to contend against the 
peculiar interpretation of this passage maintained by our fellow- 
Christians of the Roman Catholick persuasion; but in every at- 
tempt to discuss a controverted subject, it is important to under- 
stand the precise import of terms. What then did our Saviour 
mean in this celebrated text by his Church ? It has been defined^ 
an assembly of faithful men, of believers, of true Christians. But 
the definition is not strictly correct. For the traitor Judas belong- 
ed to it during our Lord's ministry. Simon Magus was baptized 
into it by Philip, one of the seven deacons, and among other para- 
bles, Jesus put forth one, in which he described it, as a field con- 
taining wheat and tares, and said, " Let both grow together until 
the harvest, 5 * So that to speak of his Church, as comprising those 
only, among the various denominations of Christians, whom God 
shall perceive and acknowledge to be faithful and true, is directly 



at variance with this description, and the two examples which havo 
been adduced. 

I prefer therefore a more scriptural explanation. I prefer to 
consider that portion of men, who have submitted to the holy rite 
of baptism, as constituting the body of Christ's Church, no matter 
what may be the real state of their hearts and affections. This 
can be known to him only, who searcheth the heart and trieth the 
reins. But that which is visible is known to us. On the one side, 
we have the world, and on the other those, that have been taken 
from it, and sacramentally admitted into the Church, of which 
Christ is the head, because he purchased it with his blood, and be- 
cause it is a kingdom over which he exercises supreme power and 
authority. 

The great, the all important question remains however to be dis- 
cussed. Baptism is undoubtedly the initiatory rite or sacrament, 
by which we enter the visible fold of Christ; but how is that fold 
itself established ? Where resides the instrumental power of con- 
ferring its gracious privileges upon the sons and daughters of men? 

Will you tell me, Brethren, that any men or set of men can per 
form all this, in virtue of their own free will and pleasure? It 
would be a very popular doctrine, and would harmonize wonder- 
fully well with that spirit of freedom, which built up, and still per- 
petuates our political institutions. And no man can honour that 
spirit, or love those institutions more than the preacher of to-day. 
Most cheerfully and most heartily do I recognise the principle, that 
in the civil concerns of this life, all power and sovereignty reside^ 
and of right ought to reside in the people. They can form what 
government they choose, and they can alter it when they choose ; 
whenever indeed the happiness and prosperity of the larger num- 
ber loudly demand a change. Herein they are the sole judges and 
the sole rulers. The Almighty hath set no limits to their power, 
except that it be exercised in justice and equity. il Righteousness 
exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people." 

While however 1 am thus anxious to range myself on the side of 
those, who zealously maintain the political rights and privileges of 
mankind on the subject of self government, I am no such enthusi- 
ast in favour of human liberty, as to imagine, that it can justly 
arrogate to itself the smallest original authority, where God hath 
-expressly reserved it to himself Popular or not popular, Christ 



15 



Jesus is with me, King in Zion and Lord of all. c: Thy throne,- 1 
O Christ, " is for ever and ever : the sceptre of thy kingdom is sr. 
right sceptre, Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness : 
therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness 
above thy fellows/' And that throne and that sceptre, the throne 
and sceptre of a kingdom, which is spiritual, which he himself de- 
clared was not of this world; these, he hath never relinquished; 
these, he never will relinquish until in the language of Paul, " the 
end cometh, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God 
even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and all au- 
thority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies 
under his feet." 

And I desire no plainer testimony than this, to prove the in- 
ability of mere men to establish his Church, and commission his 
ambassadors, as they would establish a new form of government, 
and commission its executive, legislative, and judicial officers. For 
this purpose they have neither warrant nor example from the 
scriptures. The Jewish Church and priesthood were the result of 
divine appointment alone, and the Christian stand upon the same 
foundation. "Jesus came and spake unto" the eleven disciples, 
"saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go 
ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; Teaching them 
to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I 
am with you always, even unto the end of the world." 

You perceive, Brethren, by the very terms of this commission, 
that it was limited in its nature, and in the privileges, which it 
conferred. Our Saviour did not address mankind, at large. Here 
is no authority conveyed to Jewish doctors ; those who officiated in 
Jewish synagogues, to go about evangelizing the world, and bap- 
tizing their converts into his spiritual fold. It is not conveyed to 
the best of them, to Gamaliel, to Nicodemus, to Joseph of Arimathea, 
much les» to the worst. It is not even conveyed to the seventy 
disciples, whom he had before elected, and sent abroad on errands 
of miraculous grace and virtue ; but to the eleven and the eleven 
alone. Had others acted under it, it would have been a manifest 
usurpation of ungranted power, it would have been a violation of 
Christ's ordinance, and would have subjected the offender, perhaps, 
to the same punishment, which afterwards befel Ananias and Sap - 
phira, 



No separation of individuate to a specifick office and ministry . 
could indeed be more solemn and imposing, It was performed by 
our Lord in person, after his resurrection from the dead, and even 
under these circumstances was not fully completed. They were 
still to remain at Jerusalem, and wait for the promise of the Father, 
They were still to elect another to take part of this ministry and 
apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell. They were 
still to be baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, before they 
could venture to act as ambassadors for Christ, And does this 
look as if their rights and privileges might be assumed by others^ 
at pleasure. Does this look, as if any person, upon his own mere 
motion, or guided by some fancied call from God, could presume to 
exercise gifts and graces, thus solemnly and authoritatively con- 
ferred, To me, it speaks a very different language. To me, it 
reserves all original and inherent power to Christ, It confers it, 
after a delegated maimer only, upon the eleven, and confides to 
them the responsible office, of being his ministers to the uttermost 
parts of the earth, of preaching his gospel, and founding his Church , 
wherever there were eyes to see, and ears to hear, and souls to save 

To what has been already advanced, I have therefore to remind 
you, that in every correct definition of a Church, you must inva- 
riably associate with it, the idea of officers, deriving their authori- 
ty from its great head, and by him empowered to discharge its 
ministry, and perpetuate its existence. In this particular, it cor- 
responds with all societies of human invention. You never heard 
of one, without its appropriate officers. Its very existence depends 
upon them. The moment it is formed, they are chosen. Without 
some presiding power, every thing relating to it would be involved 
in inextricable anarchy and confusion. It would be thus, with all 
literary and humane societies. It would be thus, with all the gov- 
ernments upon the earth. Our own would cease to exist, if there 
were no longer any provision for the election and appointment of 
men to administer it, according to the constitution and the laws. 
You are even aware, that with us, they must be elected with certain 
qualifications, and after a prescribed form and manner, or the na- 
tion would regard them in the light of usurpers, and refuse obedi- 
ence to their illegitimate authority. Nor was the Church of Christ 
deemed, by its divine founder, of less value and importance than 
frhe societies and governments of this world. He has rather given 



If 

to it, an authorized ministry. He has rather promised to be with 
it " always, even unto the end of the world." 

And now comes the question of greatest moment to those, who 
would enlist under the banners of the true Apostolick Church, and 
the ministry, it has received of the Lord Jesus. A vast multitude 
of sects are known to claim it, but as we have already seen, that it 
is one, and that " there should be no schism in the body," in other 
words, no sects, where is it to be found ? I answer, wherever the 
officers in question are duly called and ordained. Wherever, ac- 
cording to the institution of the Apostles, endued with power from 
on high, there are these three orders in the ministry ; deacons, au- 
thorized to preach the gospel and baptize ; priests or presbyters, 
having the additional authority to commemorate the death and suf- 
ferings of Christ, in the holy eucharist; and bishops, who alone 
possess the greater power of celebrating the holy rites of confirma- 
lion and ordination. And to convince you, that this is the doctrine 
of our protestant Episcopal Church, I shall here recite the twenty 
ihird article of her creed. "It is not lawful for any man to take 
upon him the office of publick preaching, or ministering the sacra- 
ments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called and sent to 
execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called 
and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who 
have publick authority given unto them in the congregation, to call 
and send ministers into the Lord's Vineyard." 

In the preface to her ordination services, she is still more ex- 
plicit and declares, " It is evident unto all men, diligently reading 
holy Scripture and Ancient Authors, that from the Apostles' time 
there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church, — - 
Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. Which Offices were evermore had 
in such reverend estimation, that no man might presume to execute 
any of them, except he were first called, tried, examined, and known 
to have such qualities as are requisite for the same ; and also by 
publick Prayer, with imposition of hands, were approved and ad- 
mitted thereunto by lawful Authority. And therefore, to the intent 
that these Orders may be continued, and reverently used and es- 
teemed in this Church, no man shall be accounted or taken to be a 
lawful Bishop, Priest, or Deacon, in this Church, or suffered to ex- 
ecute any of the said Functions, except he be called, tried, exam 

C 



ft 



med, and admitted thereunto, according to the Form hereafter fol- 
lowing, or hath had Episcopal Consecration or Ordination." 

It is scarcely possible to conceive of language more plain and 
unequivocal than this. It conveys opinions entirely coincident 
with my own. An episcopalian upon principle, I do most sincerely 
and conscientiously believe them. Not however, because they 
have been drawn up by divines eminent for their piety, and re- 
nowned for their theological learning; but because they have 
their foundation in the scriptures of truth, and are susceptible of a 
defence,, as solid and substantial as those scriptures themselves,, 
You must bear with me, Brethren, while I pursue it ; while I en- 
deavour to convince you upon this subject, as f am myself con- 
vinced, by a species of evidence, that taken as a whole, amounts 
to the demonstration produced by figures, which cannot lie. If 
there be any failure, with minds open to rational conviction, it must 
result from the weakness of the advocate, and not from the absence 
of ample proof to be gained from the bible, and most triumphantly 
corroborated by the written testimony of the primitive Fathers of 
the Church. 

A good logician often commences a train of reasoning with 
the least satisfactory argument, gradually proceeding to the more 
powerful and convincing, and determined as I am to be very full r 
as well as free, in this discussion, I shall adopt the same method, 
and maintain, in the first instance, the scriptural origin of the min- 
istry of the Church, upon the ground of analogy. 

You are probably aware of the almost universal opinion prevail- 
ing among Christians, concerning types and antitypes. Types in 
theological language are emblems, by which something future is 
prefigured, and antitypes constitute whatever, when it actually 
transpires, is thus prefigured. The former are found in the old 
testament, the latter in the new. Abel r for example, was a type 
of Christ, and is so accounted by the Apostle, who tells us that 
"the blood of sprinkling speaketh better things than that of Abel.'" 
The intended sacrifice by Abraham, of his only son Isaac, is an- 
other, and evidently shadows forth the future sacrifice of the only 
begotten Son of God, upon the accursed tree, in order to secure 
Ihe redemption of the world, and the forgiveness of sins. St. Paul 
indeed assures us, in general terms, that " the lav/ was a shadow of 
good things to come, and not the very image of the things.'" And 



19 



cms too, at the very time, that he is speaking of the priesthood of 
Christ, and the offering up of his body upon the Cross once for alL 

It is consequently, very generally admitted, that all the Mosaick 
institutions were typical of the Christian^ that we have rites and 
ceremonies in the Christian^ which exactly correspond, with those 
ordained of Godj to be used in the Jewish Church. Baptism affords 
a familiar and well known illustration. It comes in the place of 
circumcision, and as such is frequently referred to by the sacred 
writers, and by Christ himself, when reproving the blindness of 
Nicodemus, for not comprehending baptism, as the instituted mode 
of admission into his spiritual kingdom, he asks, " Art thou a master 
of Israel, and knowest not these things ?" Is your memory so 
treacherous as to forget, that by circumcision you have been per- 
sonally admitted a member of the Church of Israel ? 

The Lord's Supper is another. It answers to the feast of the 
passover among the Jews. It was even instituted by our Saviour, 
when he was commemorating that ancient rite, and is expressly 
recognised by St. Paul, as being established in its room. " Christ 
our passover is sacrificed for us : Therefore let us keep the feast> 
not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wicked- 
ness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 1 ' 

With these remarkable coincidences existing, between the 
Churches of the old and new dispensations, we might therefore? 
Brethren, very naturally look for another resemblance in the order 
of men, who were set apart to administer the respective sacraments 
of the law and gospel. And we have it. In the Jewish Church, 
there were three orders in the ministry, the high priest, priest, and 
Levite. The first, having greater dignity and power, than the 
second, and the second^ than the third, In the Christian Church, 
the same distinction in relation to number and authority has always 
obtained. It was thus during the actual ministry of Christ. He 
himself occupied the first rank, the twelve Apostles, the second^ 
and the seventy disciples, the third. 

And certainly, this argument founded upon analogy, upon the 
types and antitypes of the scriptures* derives peculiar force from 
the consideration, that our blessed Saviour is perpetually described, 
in the epistle to the Hebrews, by the very name, which was applied 
to the chief minister among the Jews. " Wherefore, holy Brethren, 
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and Higtj 



20 



Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;" and again, "seeing then 
that we have a great High Priest, that is passed into the heavens, 
Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have 
not a High Priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as. we are, yet with- 
out sin." Here also we are to bear in mind, that as among the 
Jews, so in this case the very name of High Priest implied superi- 
ority in station, that there must be inferiour priests, and these, as- 
you have seen, were not wanting to complete the analogy contend- 
ed for. They existed in the persons of the Apostles and of the 
seventy disciples. 

And now I ask; Was all this a matter of accident or of design? 
A matter of accident, that Paul called our Saviour, a High Priest, 
and that he himself selected two separate classes of inferiour min- 
isters, the one, for his constant, the other, for his occasional attend- 
ants?,] To me, it most 'clearly shows the actual accomplishment of 
Paul's declaration, that the law was a shadow of good things to 
come; a shadow, amongst other particulars^ of the Church, the 
. sacraments, and the priesthood of the gospel. For accident, I ab- 
jure the word as applicable to any thing performed under the aus- 
pices of Christ. For design^I embrace it on ground, which cannot 
be shaken, the accommodation of the new to the old dispensation, 
in every instance where purely spiritual things were prefigured. 
The sacraments of the Christian Church are not more essential to 
its existence, than is its priesthood. If a comparison must be 
formed, they are evidently of minor importance. For "how shall 
they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall 
they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach, except 
they be sent." If the former then were typified, why not the lat- 
ter ? Why this supposed distinction, between the sacramental means 
of grace, and the individuals authorized to administer them? The 
truth is, there is none. It never did and it never can exist. Unless 
you blend together the High Priest of our profession, the Apostles, 
and seventy disciples, unless you deny that there was any official 
difference of rank between them, I have satisfactorily proved, that 
our Saviour Christ had an eye to the three orders in the Jewish 
hierarchy, when at this early period he contemplated the future 
establishment of his own more glorious Church and ministry. 



21 



' But at length he, who came to seek and to save that which was 
lost, was taken, and by wicked hands was crucified and slain. 
And being dead and buried, in three days, he was " declared to be 
the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by 
the resurrection from the dead.'" The period had therefore arrived 
for the final settlement of his visible Church. For the space of 
forty days previous to his ascension into heaven, he gave, accord- 
ing to the Acts, " commandments unto the Apostles whom he had 
chosen :" "speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of 
God." The investigation of their nature and import I shall com- 
mence on the succeeding sabbath; and greatly shall I be mistaken, 
if they do not afford, when combined with the subsequent practice 
of the Apostles, in the propagation of the gospel ; greatly shall I be 
mistaken, if they do not afford unanswerable proof of the sole 
validity of an episcopal government and ministry in the Church of 
Christ. 

I am however free to confess in relation to that branch of it, in 
which it has become my office to minister in holy things, that I 
love it most for the doctrines, which it maintains; the doctrines 
which are according to godliness. Here there has been no dis- 
crepancy upon fundamental principles from the beginning, and I 
trust and believe, that there will be none to the end. While many 
other denominations, growing out of the reformation in religion 
witnessed in the sixteenth century, have been inconstant and va- 
riable as the wind, a long and uninterrupted dissemination of evan- 
gelical truth has distinguished the annals of the Church. Like 
the laws of the Medes and Persians, her articles change not. Like 
the Author of that gospel, from which they are taken, they may be 
characterized as " the same yesterday, and to-day and for ever." 

If you have been deeply smitten with any of the countless here- 
sies, which have deformed the Christian world, you can find no 
encouragement to enter or continue within her pale. If you have 
been wrought up to some alarming pitch of religious phrensy, in which 
the feelings have been more inflamed, than the judgment enlighten- 
ed ; here there are no enthusiastick strains of devotion to keep 
alive the excitement, and no fanatick appeals calculated to bewilder, 
and then completely desolate the understanding. If you wish to 
cherish foul antipathies, to make your fellow Christians, the objects 
of §cprn antf odium, the butts of ridicule and derision; hereis.no 



22 



tood to supply the evil passions of your nature, and no such bigotry,, 
as to exclude from offices of love and brotherly kindness, a single 
individual of that human family, for which Christ our Saviour died. 
If you desire to confide in a barren faith, in an orthodox belief of 
doctrines, which are to have no salutary operation upon your lives, 
producing in you sobriety, righteousness, and godliness; here you 
can obtain no countenance ; here your faith in Jesus must work by 
love, and spend itself in good deeds, or ye can have no part nor 
lot in this matter; we renounce the hollow hearted Christian, and 
would earnestly strive to be built up in true knowledge, faith, and 
holiness unto salvation. 

But'if there be a sorrowing penitent in this assembly ; one who 
feels the intolerable weight of his sins, and would fain cast them 
off, as a sore burden, too heavy to be borne ; one who sincerely be- 
lieves in Jesus, and in the sole efficacy of his atonement; one who 
so understands his religion, as to be conscious, that he must adorn 
the doctrine of God his Saviour in all things, fashioning his life 
after his example, and making it his invariable rule to be holy as 
he was holy, and pure as he was pure; here he may find in the 
ark of Christ's own Church, a refuge from the impending deluge 
of the divine displeasure ; here he may become a Christian upon 
principles, that are sound and practical ; here his devotion may be 
pure, his faith rational, his obedience perfect, and the final recom- 
pense of his reward ensured, without boasting, without thinking 
himself better than other men, without straining at the gnats, and 
swallowing the camels of vice and errour, 

Yes, Brethren, for these things it is, that I most love the Church, 
to which I belong. I love her for her moderate views, her chasten- 
ed worship, her scriptural doctrines, and the catfaolick spirit of for - 
bearance and good will towards others, which she would gladly in- 
culcate upon the members of her communion. Wonder not there- 
fore, that I am anxious to make you episcopalians upon principle, 
nor think it strange, that I should attach so much importance to an 
episcopal government and ministry, when I do most solemnly be- 
lieve, that to this very reception of and continuance in the Apos 
tolick faith and practice, we are mainly indebted under God for all 
those spiritual blessings and privileges, which have for so many 
ages been abundantly showered down upon our Zion : For all those 
fair proportions and unrivalled beauties, which the towering edifice 



of hei' faith and holiness presents, and that must at some future 
period cause her to be universally hailed, as the joy of the whole 
Earth; her righteousness, according to the prophet's prediction, 
having previously gone forth as brightness, and her salvation as a 
lamp that burneth, Amen. 



SERMON III. 



isaiah lxii. 1. 

For Ziorts sake will I not hold my peace^ and for Jerusalem^ sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness., 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth, 

I HAVE now arrived at that stage in the discussion upon 
Church government, when it will be necessary to be a little more 
explicit upon the true nature of the question, which has for about 
three centuries agitated the Christian world. 

Let it be remembered then, that the terms, episcopalian and pres= 
byterian, are properly and legitimately applied to the government 
or ministry of a Church, rather than to the particular doctrines or 
form of worship, which it embraces, An episcopalian is one, who 
believes in the divine institution of three orders in the Christian 
ministry, having an episcopos or bishop for the first and highest, 
A presbyterian denies this distinction of three orders, and contends 
that there is but one, the order of a presbuteros or presbyter, mean- 
ing the same with our English word elder, And I mention this 
circumstance, with the view of removing an erroneous impression 
existing in the minds of many, that the advocates of episcopacy 
are few in number, and on this account somewhat arrogant in their 
pretensions, When in reality, were you to divide the Christian 
world into twenty equal parts, eighteen, if not nineteen twentieths- 
would be found ranged on our side of this important question, 



24 



The Roman Catholicks wherever situated ; the very extensive 
denomination called the Greek Church in Russia and Turkey in 
Europe, and in some parts of Asia, including the Holy Land itself: 
the Armenians also of Asia; the Abyssinians of Africa; the Swe- 
dish and many of the German Lutherans ; such as belong to the 
established Churches in England and Ireland, with a respectable 
Church in Scotland ; all these, Brethren, are as much Episcopali- 
ans as we are : they maintain as strongly the Apostolick institution 
of episcopacy, and reject as openly every other form of Church 
government, because in their opinion founded solely upon the basis 
of human authority. I might add to this catalogue, the large and 
zealous body of Christians scattered over our own ctfuntry, and the 
land of our fathers, known by the name of Methodists, who are Epis- 
copalians in principle ; although for reasons which will hereafter be 
briefly submitted, we are constrained to consider them, unpossessed 
of the requisite authority, in other words, of what we claim to be a 
valid episcopal ministry. 

Nor must I fail to remark, that the great body of seceders from 
the Church, have the same common right to a common feature 
in their ecclesiastical polity. Presbyterianism, so far as one 
order of ministers, and one only, is concerned, includes the baptist, 
the congregational, the unitarian, the universalist, and other 
Churches, as well as the highly respectable portion of believers, 
who have chosen to designate themselves by that particular title. 
They are all the advocates of ministerial parity or equality. We. 
on the contrary, of imparity or inequality. They assert, that there 
is but one order of ministers in Christ's Church, all having the same 
power and authority. We say, that there are three orders, and that 
these are so arranged, that the lower cannot perform the prescribed 
duties of the higher. 

Bear therefore this statement in your memories. It is what 
civilians would term the very gist of the controversy. By it, I am 
willing to stand or fall in the appeal, which I shall make to the tes- 
timony of the scriptures. If episcopacy does not meet with full 
and decisive authority there, I am content to abandon it, or at least, 
to retain it on the ground of expediency alone. For if God has in- 
stituted no peculiar system of ordaining and perpetuating the ministe- 
rial servants of Christ, it must be obvious to every reflecting mind, 
that we are left to our own choice and discretion, that we are in. 



25 



iact authorized by him to found what Church or what Churches we 
please, and to appoint over them what minister or ministers, it 
seemeth to us good. To this liberty I could not urge one single ob- 
jection, I would agree to it, most heartily and most conscientious' 
Iy» But hath God said, and shall we not do it ? This is the ques- 
tion. Hath God given to his Son but one Church for his bride, 
and shall we dare to present him with many? Shall we dare to 
tender him a kind of divine polygamy, and please ourselves with the 
idea, that he himself is as highly pleased and gratified with the of- 
er? St. Paul, in his time, would have exclaimed, "God forbid 1" 
and I love to be of the party of Paul ; I love the Church that he 
loved, and in her defence would freely exhaust my feeble powers of 
argument and persuasion. 

In my last discourse I closed with the strong probability, in 
favour of our three orders in the ministry, derived from the striking 
analogies subsisting between the Jewish and Christian Churches; 
and indeed showed that the high priest, priests, and Levites of the 
former were typical of the High Priest of our profession, the Apos= 
ties, and seventy disciples, whom he early gathered about his 
person. I also reminded you of the death, burial, and resurrection of 
Christ, and proposed to bring forward on the present occasion,, 
the principal subject, which appeared to occupy his thoughts and 
conversation^ during the forty days immediately preceding his 
glorious ascension into heaven. It was his Church. All Christians 
concur in this opinion, and are ready to admit, that at this time 
he did commission his Apostles to establish it upon the earth, 
wherever indeed they were directed to propagate the gospel of the 
kingdom. 

The words of that commission I shall not now repeat, as there 
will be occasion to use them hereafter; but rather turn your atten- 
tion to a position, that must command implicit belief from all, who 
truly reverence the character and authority of our Saviour, who 
acknowledge, that he was the Son of God and the messenger of his 
grace to the children of men. It is this. Whatever the Apostles 
did, in virtue of the commission of their Lord, to preach the gospel 
and baptize all nations, and after they were endued with power 
from on high, by the visible descent of the Holy Ghost upon them ? 
in the shape of cloven tongues, as of fire ; whatever they thus did, 
m relation to the Church and its ministry, is equally binding and 

D 



26 



imperative upon us, as if it had been performed by our blessed 
Saviour in person. A contrary doctrine would destroy the inspira- 
tion, and consequently the authority of the four gospels, and of all 
the epistles, inasmuch as they were composed subsequently to his 
ascension. We should have nothing certain, nothing true ; no baptism, 
no supper of the Lord, no ministry, no Church, no cross of Christ, 
in a word, no religion. But the Holy Ghcst was given to them, 
that they might be guarded from all errour ; their divine Lord prom- 
ised to be with them always, that their acts might be his, and com- 
mand the reverence and submission of mankind on his, and not on 
their authority. 

Hence when Peter, in company with John, had healed the lame 
man, and the multitude around greatly wondered, he addressed them 
in these words, " Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why- 
look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness 
we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and of 
Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son 
Jesus ;" " And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this 
man strong ,whom ye see and know.*' Paul also in writing to the Corin- 
thians, concerning the ministry received by himself and his brethren, 
expressly asserts, " that God was in Christ, reconciling the world 
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath 
committed unto us the word of reconciliation.-" "Now then" he 
continues " we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did be- 
seech you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled 
to God." And again^ speaking of the holy eucharist, and the proper 
spirit and manner^ in which it should be celebrated, " I have receiv - 
ed of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you." By such 
strong and convincing language, we therefore easily perceive the 
interpretation given by the Apostles to the command of Christ, "-Go 
ye therefore, and teach all nations." They attempted nothing but 
through his power. They did nothing, but what he had expressly 
directed them to do. 

Let us examine then the ministry they established, and see if it 
does not in all particulars correspond with our own, with the three 
orders of bishops, priests, and deacons, and not with the one order 
of presbyters or elders. I shall begin with the lowest, because its 
investigation will not require as much time, as the highest or epis- 
copal rank. In the ordination service of deacons, the ordaining bishop- 



addresses the candidate in these words, " It appertainefh to the Of- 
fice of a Deacon, in the Church where he shall be appointed to serve, 
to assist the Priest in Divine service, and specially when he minis- 
tereth the Holy Communion, and to help him in the distribution 
thereof; and to read holy Scriptures and Homilies," meaning ser- 
mons "in the Church.; and to instruct the Youth in the Catechism; 
in the absence of the Priest to baptize Infants; and to preach, if he 
be admitted thereto by the Bishop. And furthermore, it is his 
Office, where provision is so made, to search for the sick, poor, and 
impotent people of the Parish, to intimate their estates, names, and 
places where they dwell, unto the Curate, that by his exhortation 
they may be relieved with the alms of the Parishioners, or others; 
Will you do this gladly and willingly ?" To which the candidate 
answers, " I will so do by the help of God." 

Bat where is the authorit}^ for all this ; for ordaining a deacon s 
and specifying these duties, as appertaining to his office 1 I find it 
in various parts of the new testament, and particularly in the sixth 
chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, to whose minute recital, I must 
necessarily claim your indulgent attention. " And in those days, 
when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a mur* 
muring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows 
were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the twelve called 
the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason 
that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore* 
Brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of 
the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this busi- 
ness. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the 
ministry of the word. And the saying pleased the whole multitude : 
and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost s 
and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and ParmenaSj 
and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch ; whom they set before the 
Apostles : and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on 
them." 

And now in justification of our Church ; if it should be asked, 
Why do you ordain deacons ? It appears, that the Apostles appoint- 
ed men to this office and ministry, " and when they had prayed, 
they laid their hands on them." If it should be asked, Why do you 
call them, deacons? They were diakonein, that is, to "serve?' 
tables, and deacon, from the Greek word, diakonos ? signifies a ser- 



vant, while Paul, ia his epistle to Timothy, gives him certain direc- 
tions about " the office of a deacon/' If it shouid be asked, Why- 
should they attend to the sick, poor, and impotent people of the 
parish, where provision is made for their relief, as it is with us, by 
alms contributed at the holy communion, where deacons assist the 
priest, in distributing the bread and wine, thus serving at the high- 
est of all tables, the table of the Lord ? It is in conformity to the 
original cause of their appointment, the " murmuring of the Gre- 
cians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected 
in the daily ministration.'" If it should be asked, Why are they 
permitted to read sermons in the Church, and to instruct youth in 
the catechism, and to preach the* gospel, if admitted thereto by the 
bishop, as is always done ? It is because the first seven deacons 
were to be men, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, and because 
it is said, immediately after their ordination, that Stephen, one of 
their number, "full of faith and power, did great wonders and 
miracles among the people," so that " certain of the synagogue,'* 
" disputing with" him, " were not able to resist the wisdom and 
spirit by which he spake j" and afterwards, for the very reason, that 
he persisted in preaching, the people, whom they stirred up, stoned 
him to death, " calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive 
my spirit." If it should be asked. Why are they allowed to baptize, 
as well as to preach ? It will be found in the eighth chapter of the 
Acts, that Philip, another of the seven deacons, " went down to the 
city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them ;" and f when they 
believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of 
God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men 
and women." If it should be asked, Was not the office temporary 
in its nature, and not designed to be perpetuated in the Church of 
Christ ? I answer, that it was first established, because " the num- 
ber of the disciples was multiplied," and that this reason for its ex- 
istence is far more obvious at present, than it was at the period of 
its original institution. I also find that long after this, Paul ad- 
dressed one of his epistles " to all the saints in Christ Jesus which 
are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." I find in another 
directed to Timothy, that hg writes, " Likewise must the deacons 
be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of 
filthy lucre; Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience." 
And to show, that they were to be admitted by him to this minis try, 



m 

Paul adds, " let these also first he proved j then let them use the 
office of a deacon, being found blameless." 

And now, Brethren, it is my turn to ask, if I have not here pre- 
sented you with a body of scriptural evidence upon this subject, 
which is utterly at variance with the modern idea of there being, 
but one order of Christ's ministers? If I have not shown you, be- 
yond all reasonable doubt, that the office of a deacon, as exercised 
in our Church, is conformable in every particular to the model fur- 
nished by the Apostles, and by them intended to guide and centred 
the practice of Christians to remotest time? It has been thus with 
episcopalians in every age and nation, and you cannot but perceive, 
that they have ample authority from the source of all authority to 
justify their course. 

What right then have men to build up Churches where this office 
is not recognised, or if recognised, only by name; a name, which 
you know is arbitrary in its nature, and that of itself signifies 
nothing? It is office, that confers right and power, the lawful, pre- 
scribed acts of those, who hold it, which serve to distinguish them 
from all other individuals. Tell me not then, that there are deacons 
in the Churches, to which I refer, as well as among episcopalians. 
Those Churches do not allow them to be ministers of the gospel, 
for this would add a second order to their ministry, and prove an 
obvious surrender of their favourite doctrine, that there should be 
but one. Tell me not of such nominal deacons. They are not the 
deacons of the scriptures; they do not baptize, as did Philip; they 
do not preach the gospel, as did Philip and Stephen; they are not 
separated to this office and ministry by the imposition of hands, as 
were all those ordained by the Apostles. 

And what right, I repeat, what authority is there, for this extra- 
ordinary innovation upon the original constitution of the Church? 
1 reply that there is none. None, except that, which is to be traced 
to the caprice and invention of men. None, which would not 
equally justify us in abolishing the two sacraments of the gospel, 
as some denominations of Christians have already done. None, 
which would not fairly warrant the remark, if we had no personal 
knowledge of them, that some Christians appear to consider them- 
selves wiser than the Apostles, better acquainted than they were 
v/ith the mind of Christ, and therefore disposed to mould the Church 
and its ministry, in accordance with their happier views and sound- 
er judgment. 



So 



I regret to be obliged to speak thus plainly and decisively • but ' 
the cause of truth and of Christ imperiously requires it. I am for 
rendering honour to whom honour is due. I know and am per- 
suaded, that there is a large amount of piety and devotion to reli- 
gion, clearly discernible among those, who reject what we esteem 
to be the ministry, instituted under the direction of our Saviour 
Christ. But still, none of these things move me to abandon it; 
none of these prevail with me to give in my adhesion to any body 
of believers, however respectable, who have renounced the holy 
office of a deacon, as it was instituted and maintained in the Apos- 
tolick .and primitive age. He, who departs in one respect from 
such institutions, sets a dangerous example to others, to depart m 
many. So long as it is practised, there can be no reasonable hope 
of holding " the faith, in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace and 
in righteousness of Ijfe." 

But to proceed. The second order of ministers in our Church 
is that, to which we apply indiscriminately the names of priest^ 
presbyter, and elder. They are taken from the lowest order upon 
the principle advanced by St. Paul, "they that have used the office 
of a deacon well, purchase to themselves a good degree," in other 
words, are worthy of promotion. Their ordination is frequently 
mentioned in the scriptures. Paul and Barnabas, " when they had 
ordained them elders, presbuterous, in every Church, and had pray- 
ed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they 
believed.'" And many other passages of the same import might 
be easily adduced. But it is not necessary. The institution of 
this office by the Apostles is not denied. There is here no difference 
of opinion between us and our Brethren of other Churches. All ad- 
mit its original existence. They however contending, that it is 
the only order of Christ's ministers. We, that it is the second, 
that it is subordinate to that of bishops, and without any valid au- 
thority to perform the rite of ordination. 

So far therefore, Brethren, I have established by clear and un^ 
answerable proof; first, the Apostolick office of a deacon, and 
second, by admission as well as proof, the equally Apostolick office 
of a presbyter or priest. I come therefore to the more interesting 
question, Was there another? In one point of view, there are none 
that can, or that do deny it. For the twelve Apostles were all liv* 
ing, at the time, that they ordained elders in every Churchy and 



laid their hands upon the seven deacons. And as their office is 
universally acknowledged to have been superiour to either of the 
others, it would appear, that during their existence at least, the 
analogy drawn from the Jewish priesthood is perfect and entire, 
wanting nothing. The Apostle was the antitype of the high priest^ 
the elder, of the priest, and the deacon, of the Levite. 

But the opponents of episcopacy assert, that the Apostolick office 
died with the twelve, and with Paul, called to be an Apostle, in a, 
miraculous manner. We, on the contrary, most earnestly and 
zealously contend against this supposed termination of their office. 
We maintain, as all antiquity were accustomed to maintain, that it 
still exists in the person of every regularly ordained bishop, and 
although in such ot your number, as may have bestowed little at- 
tention to the constitution of the Christian ministry, this opinion 
may excite no ordinary emotions of surprise ; yet do I flatter my - 
self, that ere the present discourses shall have been concluded, so 
powerful and convincing will be the weight of evidence in its fa- 
vour, borne both by the scriptures and the writers of the primitive 
Church, that these emotions will change their object, and be di- 
rected to such, as have the confidence and temerity to deny its 
truth. 

Before however I proceed in the investigation, it will be proper 
to place the subject in its true light. By maintaining the contin- 
ued existence of the Apostolick office, you are not therefore to im- 
agine, that we claim for those, who now enjoy it, the supernatural 
power of working miracles, or of speaking various languages.. 
Such power belongs not to them, nor, as I am free to declare, to 
any other mortals, whatever they may believe, or profess to believe. 

We rather make, and as I conceive very justly, a material dis- 
tinction between the ordinary and the extraordinary gifts original- 
ly conferred upon the Apostles. The first or the ordinary are to 
be found in the commission granted them by their divine Lord, 
As it appears in the gospels, according to John and Mark, there is 
nothing that at this time demands our attention, or that is opposed 
to the more full and explicit terms, in which it is recorded in Mat- 
thaw. "Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is 
given unto me in heaven and in earth, Go ye therefore, and teach 
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son and of the Holy Ghost; Teaching them to observe all things 



si 

•whatsoever I have commanded you; and, io, I am with you always- 
even unto the end of the world." This then is the commission, 
which instituted their office, which constituted them the Apostles 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And read it, Brethren, as often as you 
please, it will be found to contain no allusion whatever to miracu^ 
lous powers ; to nothing, which is not at this very day, professedly 
enpyed and exercised by the ministering servants of Christ, It 
does not even include the power of administering the Lord's sup- 
per by name. But only in general terms, it directs the eleven, to 
preach the gospel, to establish Churches, to admit members therein 
by baptism, and to perpetuate its existence by a ministry, as duly 
authorized to teach others, as they themselves were authorized. 

But in relation to their extraordinary gifts, these were conferred 
upon them at a subsequent period, upon the memorable day of 
Penteccst, and made no part of the office, into which they were 
ind icted. They could have taught all that Christ had commanded, 
they could have baptized and ordained, if these had never been 
granted:. Not indeed with the same power and success: For at 
that early age, it was unquestionably of the utmost importance to 
possess the gift of tongues, in order to be able to address the na- 
tions in their respective languages; and the working of miracles, 
in order to convince them, that they were teachers sent from God. 
B it when this was once accomplished, the powers themselves ceas- 
ed with the necessity, which had called them into existence. They 
are to be considered, as so many admirable qualifications, which 
the ADOstles enjoyed for evangelizing the world ; but they were no 
more indissolubly attached to their office, than were the particular 
talents and statesmanlike qualities of either of our former Presi- 
dents, indissolubly attached to the station, they filled. 

To convince you that I am right in this argument, and that it is 
only a popular errour, which supposes the Apostleship to have been 
abolished, owing to the removal of supernatural powers; you are 
to remember, that those powers were exerted by many other indi- 
viduals besides the twelve. Stephen and Philip were only deacons, 
and yet the former, "full of faith and power, did great wonders 
and miracles among the people." While of the latter, it is said, 
that " the people with one accord, gave heed unto those things 
which Philip spnke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. 
For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that 



were possessed with them : and many taken with palsies, and that 
were lame, were healed." Are you therefore prepared to renounce 
the office itself, because the modern deacon can lay no claim to 
the performance of such wonderful works ? Let us see if the same 
principle would not carry you to a yet more revolting inference. 

For private Christians also appear to have shared with the Apos- 
tles in these miraculous gifts, "And it came to pass, that, while 
Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper 
coasts, came to Ephesus; and finding certain disciples, He said 
unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? 
And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether 
there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then 
were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then 
said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, 
saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which 
should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard 
this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when 
Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; 
and they spake with tongues and prophesied. And all the men 
were about twelve." Are you therefore prepared to say, that there 
are no private Christians now, because there is not one single mod- 
ern professor, who can pretend to have the supernatural gift of 
tongues? 1 anticipate your thoughts. You cannot but shrink from 
such a conclusion, with the utmost repugnance. You cannot but 
perceive, that the preceding examples clearly evince the imbecility 
of that argument, against the continued existence of the Apostolick 
office, which is founded on the present inability of those who exer- 
cise its ordinary functions to work miracles and speak with tongues. 

I shall therefore, in my next discourse, proceed to prove that it 
never has been abolished, that it still continues to exist, and that 
we may fully rely upon the word of Christ, that it always will. In 
the meantime, let me assure you, that in the prosecution of this 
inquiry, I have no sinister designs to accomplish, If it were pos- 
sible for me to entertain them, I can perceive no probability of 
their being realized. With the mere creature of popularity and 
expediency, it were apparently far better upon such a theme to 
impose the seal of perpetual silence upon his lips. But preferring 
to be guided by other and better motives, preferring the cause of 
truth, as the only cause, that can give me comfort in a dying hour, 

E 



and especially at the dreadful day of judgment, I have determined 
to venture all upon the resolute though charitable vindication of 
the true Church of Christ. " For Zion's sake will I not hold my 
peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteous- 
ness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a 
lamp that burnetii." 

If this course exposes me to cavil, I have learnt from Paul, that 
" If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." If 
it fastens upon me the suspicion of corrupt and unworthy motives, I 
have obtained from the same source, this invaluable lesson," with me 
it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's 
judgment ; yea, I judge not my own self ; For I know nothing by 
myself ; yet am I not hereby justified : but he that judgeth me is 
the Lord." 

Upon principle, I am indeed extremely tenacious of freedom of 
thought and freedom of expression, and claiming it for myself, I 
am equally willing to have it enjoyed by others. Not however 
with the view of wantonly outraging the feelings of any Christian, 
nor for the purpose of derogating in the slightest degree from his 
attainments in grace, or his sincere devotion to the interests of the^ 
Redeemer's kingdom. For what could be gained by this conduct 
here, and even upon the supposition that there is much, what is to 
be gained hereafter? Nothing, absolutely nothing, unless it be the 
privilege of mourning, through a long eternity, the fearful recom 
pense justly awarded to bitter revilings and ungodly malice. I 
am therefore steadfastly resolved, after the example and in obedi 
ence to the express mandate of Christ, to love all men, and par- 
ticularly all Christians of whatsoever name and whatsoever sect. 

It will be done, not by fighting their battles and espousing their 
errours ? not by attributing to them the possession of that true 
Church, from which they have erred, not knowing the scriptures 
upon this pointy however deeply they may be versed in their doc* 
trines, and however freely they may have imbibed their spirit, in 
others ; but I will show it, by cherishing towards them that kind of 
charity, which imputes good intentions, even where it is incapable 
of perceiving entire obedience to divine institutions. I will show 
it, by cordially inviting them, as I now do, as I always have donej 
and shall continue to do, to unite with us, at the table of the Lord 
in partaking of " the cup of blessing which we bless," and <k the 
bread which we break " 



85 



More than this, it is not reasonable for them to expect or to de- 
mand. More than this, I could not conscientiously advise an epis- 
copalian of my own principles to tender. But to this extent, to 
the extent of loving them 5 even as Christ hath loved us, do you, 
Brethren, as you value the future approbation of heaven, do you 
always exhibit the true Christian temper and spirit of benevolence 
and forbearance. And may God, of his infinite mercy, soon cause 
all our divisions to be healed; by his Spirit, working in due season^ 
may all believers, rallying round one common standard of faith 
and practice, soon become united in the one holy catholick or uni- 
versal Church; and to Him, the Father, to the Son, and Holy Ghost, 
three persons and one God, shall be ascribed everlasting praises, 
world without end. Ajiex 



SERMON IV. 



isaiah lxii. 1 = 

For Zion's sake will J not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's saJce 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness^ 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

IN my last discourse I succeeded, Brethren, in proving from 
the scriptures the divine institution of the office of a deacon. I 
showed you, both from the scriptures and by admission, the equally 
authorized office of a presbyter or elder, from which so large and 
respectable a body of protestants derive their name, and commenced 
my observations upon the highest or Apostolick office, by endeavour- 
ing to obviate the commonly received objection to its continued ex= 
istence, which is founded upon the acknowledged absence of supers 
natural gifts, on the part of those, who now claim to exercise its 
powers. 

The argument I cannot but think was full and satisfactory, It 
-separated the office and its prescribed duties from the miraculous 



M 



properties, with which the twelve Apostles were endowed, in-order* 
to discharge their ministry to the greater glory of God, and the 
more certain propagation of the gospel. It clearly negatived the 
popular doctrine upon the subject, inasmuch as this would prove too 
much ; it would prove, that if at this time there are no Apostles, 
because there are none to perform miracles and to speak with 
tongues ; neither can there be deacons or private Christians, be- 
cause they are now similarly incapacitated, although instances of 
the same powers having been once conferred upon them, are re- 
corded in the scriptures. 

I advance therefore in the discussion, and consider the language 
employe'd by our Saviour, at the separation of the eleven to the 
w r ork of the ministry, as affording no slight evidence of the perpe- 
tuity of the Apostolick office. In St, John, the words are these. 
" Peace be unto you : as my Father hath sent me, even so send I 
you." And here, Brethren, you are to bear in mind, that this pas- 
sage must necessarily refer to those powers only, which can be 
borne by frail and sinful beings, like ourselves. It does not mean, 
for example, that because the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour 
of the world, to taste of death for every man, and, by that death 
upon the cross, to make a full and complete atonement for all sin, 
it does not mean, that because of this, Christ sent the eleven to 
work out the redemption already worked, and endure the cross and 
death already endured. For such performances, finite beings would 
appear to have been utterly inadequate, and had it been otherwise, 
having been once accomplished, no possible necessity could exist 
for another sacrifice and expiation for human guilt. 

We must consequently look for some other solution to this impos- 
ing delegation of power. Something within the scope of man's in- 
feriour capacity and character. Hence I confine it to those acts of 
the ministry, which the eleven exercised, as has been alreadv 
shown you, in Christ's stead. It is as though he had said, As my 
Father hath sent me to preach the gospel and baptize, to build up 
the Church and establish its ministry, even so send I you, duly em- 
powered in my name to discharge all these duties ; as he sent me 
to make you Apostles, even so send I you, with full power and au- 
thority to confer the same dignity on others. If this is not a fair 
and correct paraphrase, I know not what is. I know not what else 
could have been possibly designed by our blessed ..Redeemer. What- 



31 



ever Catholicks may assert, Protestants will never admit, that the 
oblation upon the cross can be again offered. Whatever favourite 
doctrine they may draw from the subsequent words of Christ, 
*• Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are 
remitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are re- 
tained Protestants will never admit, that persons, who afterwards 
acknowledged themselves to be " men of like passions," with their 
hearers, had any other power to forgive sins, than that, which was 
declaratory and not absolute; that, which consisted in preaching 
repentance, as the medium of obtaining forgiveness of God, through 
Christ, and not auricular confessions, in order to receive it, in vir- 
tue of even Apostolick power. You must therefore perceive the 
strict propriety of the inference I have drawn. You must perceive, 
that, when in the very act of creating Apostles, our Lord used the 
emphatick language, " as my Father hath sent me, even so send I 
you," he certainly intended, that their Apostleship should be trans- 
mitted to others, with the like authority on their part to transmit it, 
ad infinitum. 

And this, Brethren, is a conclusion, abundantly verified by the 
latter clause of their grand commission, as it is given in Matthew; 

Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." For 
we may say of all the original Apostles, as one of them early said 
of the patriarch David, they are " both dead and buried ;" their 
spirits no more inhabit the bodies, that are now mouldered into dust 
and oblivion. Our Saviour could not therefore have promised to be 
with them, individually and personally, unto the end of the world ; 
with the very men composed of spirit, soul, and body, whom he on 
this occasion addressed. It would have been falsified by the event, 
It would have derogated alike from his prescience and his truth. For 
the world yet exists, and in the world, those Apostles no longer live, 
and move, and have their being. But apply the promise, as it 
should be applied, to the office they sustained ; consider this to have 
been prolonged from their age to our own ; consider it to have been 
regularly filled in uninterrupted succession, throughout this long 
tract of time ; and that it will thus continue to be occupi I, 'itil 
time shall be no more; and I find it easy to comprehend, as well as 
to believe. I find it peculiarly grateful and encouraging to reflect, 
that in the continued existence of its highest, Apostolick order, the 
presence of Christ is still enjoyed in the ministry of the Church: 



3b 



that he still loves and fights for it, as his own glorious Church ; that - 
he still watches over it, with all a bridegroom's fond affection, and, 
through all future time, will make his own saying faithful and 
true, that " the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 1 " 

But these arguments, it may be said, are mere inferences, The 
declarations in question do not, in so many words, announce the 
perpetuity of the Apostolick office. I reply, that if this objection 
be valid, it can be urged as strongly against every order of the 
priesthood, and thus leave the Church without a single authorized 
minister of Christ I also appeal to the scriptures, and, to the close 
of that^ period of ecclesiastical history, which they embrace, can 
exhibit the names of other Apostles, than those originally appointed 
by our Saviour. Of Judas, one of the twelve, it is even u written 
in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no 
man dwell therein; and, his bishoprick let another take." Hence 
the very first act, performed by the eleven, after the ascension of 
Jesus, was to supply the vacancy occasioned by the treason and 
death of Judas. In relation to two candidates selected for this pur= 
pose, " they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts 
of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, That he 
may take part of this ministry and Apostleship, from which JudajS 
by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place. And they 
gave forth their lots: and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was 
numbered with the eleven Apostles.'" He shared their title and 
their power. He was no more inferiour to them, than if he had 
been called and appointed by Christ in person. And was not Paul 
inducted into the same office? Was not he equal to his Brethren, 
who repeatedly styles himself, " an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the 
will of God who expressly says, " I suppose I was not a whit be- 
hind the very chiefest Apostles;" and again, "Are they ministers 
of Christ? (I speak as a fool,) I am more?" 

How evidently then do these two instances of Matthias and Paul 
negative the idea of the Apostolick office being limited, as to num- 
ber, or person, or time. They were not of the twelve first selected 
by Christ. For a long period, after this blessed Being expired upon 
the cross, the latter was a persecutor of the Christians, and was 
only converted to the faith, he so nobly preached and adorned- by 
the miraculous power of God. 



39 

And should it be contended, that these were extraordinary cases^ 
and not to be used as precedents in the future organization of the 
ministry, I have yet to present you with other names familiar to 
the readers of the sacred volume. In the fourteenth chapter of the 
Acts, divine worship was about to be offered to two of the evangel- 
ists, under the idea, expressed by the people, " in the speech of 
Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men." 
« Which, when the Apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of, they 
rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out, and 
saying, Sirs, why do ye these things ?" Barnabas therefore was an 
Apostle, In this case and some others, by that title, his name is 
associated with and even precedes that of the great Paul. But 
how is this to be reconciled with the favourite opinion of some, that 
the office itself was restricted, and incapable of being transmitted to 
others? How is that opinion to be reconciled with this passage, in the 
epistle of Paul to the Philippians, " I supposed it necessary to send 
to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and 
fellow-soldier, but your messenger," that is, your Apostle, for in 
the original Greek, the word is " apostolon," although it is here 
translated according to its literal import, " one who is sent," " a 
messenger?" 

Surely Brethren, these quotations, and many others of a similar 
character might be adduced ; surely they are utterly at variance 
with tbe alleged confinement of the Apostleship to the twelve, to 
Matthias and Paul, or with its final extinction in them. Names, in 
themselves, are indeed extremely vague and uncertain; but in these 
cases, we find Epaphroditus denominated " my brother, and com- 
panion in labour, and fellow-soldier," as well as " your Apostle." 
We not only find the plural of this title applied to Barnabas and 
Paul conjunctively; but we discover throughout their travels, as 
recorded in the Acts, that they always exercised co-ordinate pow- 
er and jurisdiction to the very moment, when " the contention," 
concerning the conduct of the evangelist Mark, " was so sharp 
between them, that they departed asunder one from the other." 
We discover, that at this separation, Barnabas took Mark, and Paul 
chose Silas, and that neither arrogated to himself the right or the 
power of regulating the conduct, or controlling the opinions of the 
^ther. 



40 



And here it will be "necessary to remind you of one of the most . 
material points, connected with this discussion, They, who claim 
that presbyters are now the only order of ministers in Christ's 
Church, arte reduced to the necessity of maintaining, that those 
presbyters enjoy the authority of calling others to the same office, 
by the imposition of hands. We, on the contrary, firmly contend, 
that this authority was peculiar to the Apostles: that they alone ex- 
ercised it in the scriptures, and finally transferred it> not to the pres- 
byters, but to their immediate successors in the Apostleship. To 
prove this, we have both the negative testimony of the inspired- 
volume, wherein not one single instance of presbyterian ordination 
can be found, and the positive, which shows, that all ordinations 
were performed by the Apostles in person ; either by the twelve, 
by Paul, called to be an Apostle in an extraordinary manner, or 
by those, w T ho were subsequently raised to this pre-eminent dignity 
For example, the twelve " laid their hands*' upon the seven deacons, 
who were never known to perform the like ceremony. The Apos- 
tles, Paul and Barnabas, " ordained them elders in every Church," 
who were equally scrupulous with the deacons in never presuming 
to assume the same power. 

But what places this subject, beyond all reasonable doubt, is to 
be found in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, particularly in thoss 
directed to Timothy, who is therein regarded by the writer, Paul, 
as exerting Apostolick power and government, in the Church of 
Ephesus. I know indeed, that the Apostolick character of Timothy 
is denied by the opponents of episcopacy, and that the}- are ex- 
tremely anxious to ha ve it believed, that he was only a presbyter or, 
at most, an evangelist ; although this last is a title, that designates 
no one office in particular ; inasmuch as it signifies " a preacher/* 
" the messenger of good news," and is consequently equally ap- 
plicable to the Apostles, elders, and deacons, all of whom preached 
"glad tidings of good things." But to show you, that Timothy wa^ 
superiour to a presbyter, and therefore an Apostle, with all tho 
rights and privileges attached to that office, you are to remember, 
that it is presupposed by these remarkable expressions, " Wherefore 
I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which 
is in thee by the putting on of my hands;" and again, "the things 
that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same com- 
mit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." 



41 



Ail which evidently relates to ordination, and not to instruction in 
doctrine or practice ; because these things were to be committed, 
not to the ignorant and vicious pagan of Ephesus, in the hope of 
producing his conversion ; but to such as were already Christians ; 
" to faithful men," who in virtue of this commission were to do that, 
which they had not power to do before, to preach the gospel and 
" teach others also." 

With this explanation agrees that other admonition of Paul, 
"Lay hands suddenly on no man." Wherein you perceive, that 
the full power of ordination is granted to Timothy, and the great- 
est caution enjoined, lest there should be others, than the truly 
faithful, to obtain the ministry of holy things. But when or where, 
were such charges ever conveyed to the mere elders of the scrips 
tures? Some of that order were at this identical period resident 
at Ephesus, and Paul on his journey to Jerusalem, long before the 
epistle was written, had sent from Miletus to Ephesus, and called 
the elders of the Church ; and when they came, instead of charging 
them, as he charged Timothy, on the subject of ordination, he nev- 
er referred to it ; he addressed them altogether upon the subordinate 
duties of the ministry. And how are we to account for this, if 
elders were in reality entitled to ordain? How can we possibly 
account for this strange omission, on the part of Paul, in a par- , 
ticular, upon which he was afterwards, so very solicitous and so 
very minute? Especially, when he had sent for those elders from 
Miletus, for the express purpose of giving them his last advice, 
and had pressed it home upon their hearts with such power and 
affection* that " they all wept sore, and fell upon Paul's neck, and 
kissed him ; sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, 
that they should see his face no more." You cannot believe that 
he had previously counselled them on the subject, when they were 
admitted to the eldership. It would involve the absurdity, if Tim- 
othy was only an elder like themselves, of sending him to Ephesus 
to ordain, where elders already existed, having equal authority, 
and equally explicit directions from Paul, as to the manner in wkich 
they were to discharge this important act of their ministry. I am 
therefore persuaded that they never had such counsel. I am per- 
suaded on this ground; and for the additional reason, that elders 
never had such power conferred upon them. It is never attributed 
to them in the scriptures, in the Acts or in the epistles, and it was 

F 



4£ 



never exercised. In the much controverted passage, "Neglect hot 
the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the 
laying on of the hands of the presbytery ;" the preposition " with," 
at most, merely implies concurrence, and not the creative power 
asserted in the parallel passage, already quoted, " Wherefore I put 
thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in 
thee by the putting on of my hands." Timothy, on the other hand, 
evidently possessed the right to ordain, It is ascribed to him in 
the solemn charge, " Lay hands suddenly on no man." It was this, 
that constituted his Apostolick character, and that gave him pre- 
eminence over the inferiour order of elders. 

On no other principle can we satisfactorily account for another 
class of duties, as solemnly urged upon his attention. "Let the 
elders that rule well, be counted worthy of double honour, especial- 
ly they who labour in the word and doctrine." " Against an elder 
receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them 
that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear." For how 
can these charges comport with the opinion, that he was only an elder 
himself? How can this obvious superiority and right to govern, 
to put upon trial, and rebuke the elders of Ephesus, how can it con- 
sist with his holding the same office^ and of course possessing no 
higher authority in the Church of Christ? Nothing could be more 
absurd * nothing more clearly evince, in those who maintain such 
ground, a palpable sacrifice of reason and argument on the altar of 
prejudice and schism. 

For the present, I defer the no less striking example of Titus,, to 
whom Paul writes, " For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou 
shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders 
in every city, as I had appointed thee." I defer also the case of the 
seven Angels, presiding over the seven Churches of Asia Minor, 
who are addressed by St. Joim in the book of Revelations, and for 
whose Apostolick character there is abundant testimony. I defer 
them y because they will be better understood, when taken in con- 
nexion with the testimony of the primitive fathers of the Church, 
to which I have so frequently referred, and with which I propose to 
make you acquainted in my next discourse. It will fully corrobo- 
rate the construction I have given to the scriptures, and establish 
it on their imperishable basis. 



4«5 

On the review of what has been already submitted, it appears 
io me, that nothing is hazarded, no liability to the imputation of 
reasoning from false statements, or of drawing false conclusions 5 
when the whole eurrent of scriptural evidence is asserted to bear 
■strongly and incontrovertibly in favour of these three orders of 
Christ's ministers, deacons, presbyters or elders, and Apostles. In 
relation to the last and highest, I have shown you, what no one 
disputes, inasmuch as the Apostles appointed by Christ were the 
latest writers of the new testament, that this office continued in 
existence throughout the period included in the divine records. I 
have also shown yon, that Barnabas and Epaphroditus were each 
honoured with the title of Apostles, and if it is not expressly ap- 
propriated to Timothy, that he yet exercised the highest and pe- 
culiar duties of the office itself, and must therefore upon every fair 
and equitable construction be enrolled on the catalogue of its in- 
cumbents. 

No sensible man requires to be informed, that where inspired 
history terminates, we must necessarily resort to that which is 
uninspired, in order to prosecute the inquiry upon the subject of 
Church government. The principles upon which that inquiry 
should be conducted are very important and even essential. To be 
understood they should be explained with the utmost clearness and 
precision; but as my remaining limits -would scarcely afford the 
opportunity to exhibit them in their true aspect, they must likewise 
be reserved to the succeeding sabbath. In the meantime, as the 
object is to prove the continuance of the Apostolick office, after 
the death of its original holders, and that to this office alone be- 
longs the power of ordination, it will not be amiss to vindicate the 
course I am pursuing, with a few closing remarks. 

And here Brethren, permit me to observe, that I rest every thing 
upon the basis of the scriptures, and repair to antiquity, for the sole 
purpose of proving, that I give them a fair and legitimate inter- 
pretation. If Christ had not said, As my Father hath sent me, 
even so send I you f* if he had not promised to the Apostles in 
particular, w Lo, I am with 3 t ou always even unto the end of the 
world ;" if there had been no other Apostles, but the original twelve, 
with Matthias and Paul; I should not be so strenuous in maintain- 
ing, tha t their office exists at the very moment, I am speaking. Or, 
if there could be found one solitary example of presbyterian or= 



44 



dmation in the sacred volume; I should be well pleased to ascribe 
to it, the same force and authority, which now attaches to that 
which is episcopal. Under such circumstances, I would not hesi- 
tate to discard the unvarying testimony of antiquity, as either mis- 
taken in its facts or spurious in its origin. But when upon every 
candid and impartial investigation of the word of inspiration, I am 
forced to consider the reverse of all this, as eminently true, noth- 
ing can satisfy my conscience j nothing, my internal sense of the 
divine right to institute and prescribe all things necessary for the 
welfare and prosperity of Zion ; nothing, but a sacred regard for 
and an obedient following of holy oracles. As in them, the Church 
appears to me, to be constituted one and indivisible, with a ministry 
that is not to be changed in part or abolished entirely ; I can never 
consent to coincide with human views, or to repose my confidence 
in Churches of human construction. 

If this be bigotry, inasmuch as it is the bigotry of the scriptures, 
disclosed by our Saviour and his evangelists, it is mine, and I am 
perfectly willing to bear its reproach. " Blessed are ye when men 
shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their com- 
pany, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for 
the Son of Man's sake.'" It is only refusing to others, the same 
right of private judgment, which they vehemently claim for them- 
selves, and since we must all give an account of the things done in 
the body, where there will preside a judge, unbiassed by the denun- 
ciations of separatists, it is some consolation to be accused of big- 
otry, with the grateful consciousness pervading the soul, that it is 
for adhering closely to the pattern of heavenly things. But if we 
u sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for us?" If we knowing- 
ly reject his institutions, and in preference suffer ourselves to float 
upon the tide of popular prejudice ; "who may abide the day of his 
coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?" 

I allude not to the mere errour of ignorance ; where there is sin- 
cerity of heart to obey the will of God, whenever it is clearly per- 
ceived and understood. But for myself, having attentively studied 
and founfl out what I firmly believe to be the divinely instituted 
Church of Christ, I will not yield it up, though all men should for- 
sake it, as all the disciples once forsook their Lord in his extremity 
and fled. I will not yield it up, because it would be highly crimin- 
al in me, however venial and pardonable in others, regarding it with 



45 



different eyes, and imbibing different impressions. For wherever 
there is wilful schism, there, there is sin. Wherever there is a 
known illegal assumption of the ministerial functions, or a known 
usurpation of the higher offices, by such as only enjoy the subor- 
dinate, there also, there is sin. And that these sins are not of the 
most venial complexion, in the sight of God, is readily admitted by 
the deeply skilled in sacred history. 

Take for example, the case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 
They were the sons of Levi, a component part of the Jewish hierar- 
chy, who, not contented with their inferiour station, aspired to the 
high priesthood itself. " And they," with two hundred and fifty 
princes of the assembly, "gathered themselves together against 
Moses, and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much 
upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, 
and the Lord is among them : wherefore then lift ye up yourselves 
above the congregation of the Lord?" But Moses replied, "Seem- 
eth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel hath sepa- 
rated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to him- 
self, to do the service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand 
before the congregation to minister unto them? And he hath 
brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi 
with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also?" And what were the 
consequences attending this rebellion, this criminal ambition for 
sacerdotal pre-eminence ? By the judgment of the Lord, " the ground 
clave asunder that was under them : And the earth opened her 
mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men 
that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. They, and all 
that appertained to them, went down alive into the pit, and the 
earth closed upon them : and they perished from among the con- 
gregation." The case of Uzzah is still more remarkable, for it even 
embraces the inanimate things of the priesthood, and perhaps cor- 
responds with every present unlawful consecration of the elements 
i used in the Christian sacraments. Inconsiderately and without any 

evil design, he " put forth his hand to the ark of God, and took hold 
of it ; for the oxen shook it. And the anger of the Lord was kin- 
dled against Uzzah ; and God smote him there for his errour; and 
there he died by the ark of God." 

I am not therefore to be deluded with the modern cry, that bish- 
ops " take too much upon them," when claiming to be successors 



46 



of the Apostles in their office and ministry. It is the appointment of 
God, that they should do this, and who is there to darken his coun-* 
sels or to contend with him? Not the preacher of to-day, who upon 
diligent examination of his word, perceives the angel of the Church 
at Ephesus to be commended in these words, " thou hast tried them 
which say they are Apostles, and are not, and hast found them 
liars :" Who discovers in the short epistle of Jude, that the crime 4 
just recited from the old dispensation, may be and was actually 
committed under the new. " These," he declares, " speak evil of 
things which they know not." "Wo unto them! for they have" 
"'perished in the gainsaying of Core." Who finds St. Paul pro- 
claiming to the holy Brethren among the Hebrews concerning the 
priesthood, " No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that 
is called of God, as was Aaron. So also," he continues, "Christ 
glorified not himself to be made a High Priest; but he that said 
unto him, Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee." For 
" though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things 
which he suffered," 

It is not then a light thing, as some persons are fain to imagine, 
to take upon themselves the office of an ambassador for Christ, un 
certain or careless, whether they have or have not obtained it 
through the right channel, and from the requisite authority, It is 
rather a most solemn and serious transaction. One, that cannot be 
too intensely studied, or too ardently desired to be received accor* 
ding to the appointment of heaven. A slight research will almost 
invariably result in the opinion, that one denomination is as lawful 
as another, and one set of ministers, as duly authorized as another. 
But this is not the language of the bible, and when ye consider th& 
multitude of evils springing from our numerous divisions, our end- 
less heresies and schisms ; can ye wonder that it is not ? Can ye 
wonder, when that bible is thus strangely perverted, and every 
whim of man is but the precursor of new efforts to rend the body 
of Christ, that the evil days are not shortened, and that the dawn of 
millenial union and glory still refuses to appear? 

Such wonder exists not with me. I look for no good thing that 
can come out of schism. I look for no millenium, until sectarians, 
after the future manner of the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and 
the kid, shall dwell and lie down together in the courts of the same 
.house of our God ; until, like the predicted nations, they shall beat 



4tl 



their partisan swords and spears into real spiritual ploughshares 
and pruning hooks, and learn the art of polemick war no more. 
And therefore, do I justify myself for embarking in these discourses, 
sustained as I am, by the hope of gaining some converts upon prin- 
ciple to the Church and ministry of the Lord's Anointed. And hav- 
ing embarked, "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for 
Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go 
forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burn- 
etii." Wherever there is a true Christian, let him erect what ban- 
ner he pleases, I will bid him, with regard to his internal religion, 
his experimental faith and practice, " God speed." But neverthe- 
less know ye Brethren assuredly, that union should be the watch- 
word of all believers in Jesus, and at the same time, that so far as 
the general religious prosperity is concerned, all professed union is 
no better than schism, until there be but one visible Church, as 
there is but one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, 

Hasten then, we beseech thee, gracious God, a union so fervent- 
ly to be implored. Hasten the arrival of that day, when light shall 
come upon Jerusalem, and thy glory rise upon her; when the Gen- 
tiles shall come to her light and kings to the brightness of her ri- 
sing ; when her sons shall come from far, and her daughters be 
nursed at her side ,• when the abundance of the sea shall be convert- 
ed unto her, and a multitude of precious offerings shall come up 
with acceptance on thine altar, and thou shalt glorify the house of 
thy glory. These things would we pray for, with one accord. These 
things, out of thine infinite mercy, do thou grant ; and to thee, the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, shall be 
ascribed all glory, and hoaour, and dominion, and praise, world 
without end. Amen. 



48 



SERMON V. 

isaiah lxii. 1. 

For Ziotfs sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem? s sake 
I will not restj until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness? 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii. 

IN introducing the testimony of thfe fathers of the Church, in 
relation to the government and ministry established therein, by the 
holy Apostles, I have already represented, that the principles upon 
which the inquiry should be conducted are very important and even 
essential, and that to be understood, they should be explained with 
the utmost clearness and precision. 

You are doubtless aware, that all the various denominations of 
protestant Christians are exceedingly tenacious in holding up the 
bible as the sole rule of their faith and practice ; and not one of 
them has been more plain and explicit, on this very material point, 
than the Church to which we profess to belong. According to her 
sixth article, " Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to 
salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be prov- 
ed thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be be- 
lieved as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessa- 
ry to salvation." With this doctrine I most cordially concur. I 
have not the remotest idea of recognising any religious system 
whatever, as a standard of authority, independent of that blessed 
volume, which alone contains the written revelation of God's wilK 
To this alone I bow with reverential awe, and in the spirit of a 
rational and confiding faith. 

And yet, who does not know, that from this one inspired source 
are drawn a vast variety of opposing creeds? It is the common 
standard of Catholick and Protestant, of Churchman and Dissenter* 
of Trinitarian and Anti-Trinitarian, of Calvinist and Arminian. 
All these, with many more entertaining opinions diametrically at 
variance, the one with the other; all these appeal to the same di- 
vine revelation, ang! thence deduce their respective rites and dogmas. 



49 



tinder such circumstances, to pretend that the several sects are 
liiike just and right, in their different views and inferences, would 
be to deprive the scriptures of all harmony and all certainty, 
The same passage would be made in one mouth, to assert the ever- 
lasting, and in another, the limited punishment of the wicked. 
And certainly, by no process of reasoning, with which I am ac- 
quainted, can it be made to appear, that these discordant assertions 
are both true, and that a most palpable contradiction in terms is in 
fact no contradiction. The same may be said of all other debata- 
ble opinions. If both sides are to be considered equally entitled 
to credit, there is an end to the unchangeable character and con- 
sistency of God and his word. We are at perfect liberty to believe 
what we list, and to construct a thousand forms of doctrine, no 
matter how great may be the contrast, how irreconcilable the 
sentiments. But conscious as I am, that nothing of this kind car* 
be justly imputed to the scriptures, it is with me a solemn and 
serious truth, that they speak but one language, and impose upon 
as the obligation of endeavouring to interpret them in singleness 
of heart and unity of mind. 

Still however we differ; we cannot agree. Whfcre then are we 
to look for a competent tribunal, to which we may refer our differ- 
ences, and consent to abide by its decision? fn this life I know of 
none, unless it be the uninspired writings of those, who first be- 
lieved in Christ. Some of them were cotemporary and personal- 
ly acquainted with the Apostles, and consequently in possession of 
much greater advantages, than we can possibly enjoy for ascer- 
taining, if not the precise doctrines, at least the precise institutions 
of those immediate companions and servants of Christ. 

Suppose, for example, that one of our age had constantly asso- 
ciated with the Apostles, and by the good providence of God had 
been permitted to remain to this time ; suppose, that as a Christian 
of blameless life and conversation, he was every way worthy of 
our confidence in his veracity ; would he not be able most satis- 
factorily to settle such questions, as these : Did the Apostles admit 
infants to baptism? Did they in celebrating the rite sprinkle or im- 
merse? Did they recognise a change of the sabbath from the last 
to the first day of the week? Or to come more immediately within 
the design of these discourses : Did they establish the one single 
order of presbyters in the ministry, or the three distinct orders of 

G 



bishops, presbyters, and deacons? Most ctearly there can be bur 
one opinion upon such a statement. We should all be willing 
to admit the superiour accuracy of his knowledge to our own, and 
as readily agree to be governed by the decisive testimony he would 
be enabled to bear. 

This then, as I conceive, is the very attitude occupied by the 
primitive fathers, with the single exception, that being dead they 
yet speak by the works, which they have left behind. They either 
lived with the Apostles, or in some instances soon after ; they en- 
joyed all the facilities for information, connected with that early 
age and their peculiar situation ; they were humble, piousy and 
holy men of God ; they evinced their faithfulness unto death, in 
cheerfully submitting to the pains and penalties of martyrdom; 
they committed their knowledge of the Christian Church to paper; 
their writings have been preserved pure and unadulterated to our 
age, and are at this moment as credible and authentick, as they 
were at the moment, they were first composed. 

And now I demand, in what light are they to be regarded? Not 
as divine authority, not as equally binding and imperative with the 
letter of the Scriptures ; but as the declarations of so many impar- 
tial and disinterested witnesses of facts, which came under their 
own observation, and about which, they could be no more mistaken, 
than you can be of the nature of the government under which you 
live, that it is republican, and not monarchical,- that its institutions 
are free, proceeding from the will of the people, and not arbitrary, 
from the nod of a despot. In determining the true sense of those 
passages of the scriptures^ which relate to the ministry of Christ's 
Church, and concerning which, there is so much controversy ex- 
isting at the present day, growing out of sectarian feeling and 
prejudice; where then can yoti discover another tribunal, in all 
respects, perfectly fair and impartial, as the tribunal furnished by 
the fathers ? It may not, cannot be. I would far sooner disbelieve, 
that Alexander crossed the Hellespont, and Csesar, the Rubicon, 
than deny all credibility to those numerous attestations, with which 
they prove episcopacy to have been universally established in the 
Church, by the Apostles of Christ. 

I will here present you with a few of the most decided and une- 
quivocal character. To begin with Ignatius, the successor of Peter 
in the Apostolick o$co at Antioch. appointed by him, and whoso 



m 

personal knowledge of many of the Apostles is not denied. In 
his epistle to the JVlagnesians, he writes, " Seeing then I have been 
judged worthy to see you, by Damas your most excellent bishop; 
and by your very worthy eresbytees, Bassus and Apollonius; 
and by my fellow servant Sotio the deacon; in whom I rejoice* 
forasmuch as he is subject unto his bishop as to the grace of God, 
and to the presbytery as to the law of Jesus Christ f I determined 
to write unto you. Wherefore it will become you also not to usfc 
your bishop too familiarly upon the account of his youth; but to 
yield all reverence to him according to the power of God the Father; 
as also I perceive that your holy presbyters do; not considering 
his age, winch indeed to appearance is young; but as becomes 
those who are prudent in God, submitting to him, or rather not to 
him, but to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the bishop of us all . 
It will therefore behove you to obey your bishop ; in honour of him 
whose pleasure it is that ye should do so, because he that does not 
do so, deceives not the bishop whom he sees, but affronts him that 
is invisible. For whatsoever of this kind is done, it reflects not 
upon man, but upon God, who knows the secrets of our hearts. It 
is therefore fitting, that we should not only be called Christians, 
but be so. As some call indeed their governour, bishop, but yet 
do all things without him. But I can never think that such as these 
have a good conscience, seeing they are not gathered together 
thoroughly according to God's commandment." 

Here then Brethren, we have a distinct enumeration of the three 
separate orders of bishops, presbyters, and deacons; we have the 
subjection of the two last, and of all the Magnesian Christians, to 
the first, explicitly stated, and the dangerous consequences of in- 
subordination maintained. Afterwards if possible, he yet more 
distinctly tells them, " I exhort you that ye study to do all things 
in a divine concord : your bishop presiding in the place of God, 
your presbyters in the place of the council of the xlpostles ; and 
your deacons most dear to me, being entrusted with the ministry 
of Jesus Christ." 

In his epistle to the Trallians, he enjoins upon them, to " con- 
tinue inseparable from Jesus Christ our God, and from your bishop, 
and from the commands of the Apostles. He that is within the 
altar is pure ; but he that is without," " that does any thing without 
ihe bishop, and presbyters, and deacons, is not pure in his con^ 



science." And again, after enumerating the same three orders, he 
uses this strong and emphatick language, " Without these there i§ 
no Church." 

In his epistle to the Philadelphians, he interprets the scriptures 
in a manner, scarcely compatible with the modern notions, to which 
I have frequently adverted " I cried whilst I was among you ; I 
spake with a loud voice; attend to the bishop, and to the presbytery, 
and to the deacons. Now some supposed that I spake this as fore- 
seeing the division that should come among you, But he is my 
witness for whose sake I am in bonds that I knew nothing from 
any mam But the Spirit spake, saying on this wise ; do nothing 
without the bishop : keep your bodies as the temples of God : love 
unity : fle,e divisions : be the followers of Christ, as he was of his 
Father. I therefore did as became me, as a man composed to unity. 
For where there is division and wrath, God dwelleth not. But the 
Lord forgives all that repent, if they return to the unity of God, and 
to the council of the bishop." 

No language, Brethren, can be stronger than this, to prove, that 
its author, the companion of the Apostles, held in abhorrence what 
now constitutes the divisions and schisms of Christians; that h^ 
regarded them, as directly opposed to the witness of the Spirit of 
our God, and pregnant with incalculable evils to the Church ; and 
that, in his judgment, all Christians must be subject to their bishop, 
as the highest earthly fountain of ecclesiastical authority, ordained 
of God. "Do nothing without the Bishop," "love unity: flee di- 
visions:" "where there is division and wrath, God dwelleth not." 
On the other hand, in his epistle to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, 
he takes occasion to address the laity of that Church, in these tru- 
ly encouraging terms, " Hearken unto the bishop, that God also may 
hearken unto you. My soul be security for them that submit to 
their bishop, with their presbyters and deacons, And may my 
portion be with theirs in God." 

Nor must I forget to apprize you, that these quotations are only 
specimens of a large number to the same import, pervading the 
epistles of this holy man, who professed to write, not of himself, not 
as taught by mere uninspired men, but upon the foundation of 
Christ and his Apostles. And what became of him ? Did he con- 
tinue faithful unto death? They who saw him die commence their 
narrative in these words; "When Trajan not long since came t$ 



53 



the Roman empire, Ignatius, the disciple of St. John the Apostle 
i^and evangelist,) a man in all things like unto the Apostles, govern- 
ed the Church of Antioch with all care." They describe his ar- 
raignment before Trajan, the intrepidity, with which he confessed 
Christ crucified, and record this sentence pronounced upon him, by 
that emperor; "Forasmuch as Ignatius has confessed that he 
carries about within himself^ him, that was crucified, we command 
that he be carried bound by soldiers to the great Rome, there to be 
thrown to the beasts, for the entertainment of the people. When 
the holy martyr heard this sentence he cried out with joy, I thank 
thee, O Lord, that thou hast vouchsafed to honour me with a per- 
fect love towards thee; and hast made me to be put iato iron bonds 
with thy Apostle Paul." After which, they detail the incidents' 
occurring in his journey to Rome, and proceed to relate, that upon 
the day of his martyrdom, " all the brethren kneeling down, he 
prayed to the Son of God in behalf of the Churches, that he would 
put a stop to the persecution, and continue the love of the Brethren 
towards each other; which being done, he was with all haste led 
into the amphitheatre, and speedily, according to the command of 
Csesar before given, thrown in, the end of the spectacles being at 
hand." "Thus," they continue, "was he delivered to the cruel 
beasts, near the temple by wicked men ;" and thus, by his patient 
submission to such a cruel death, do I claim for the testimony of 
the holy martyr, Ignatius, all credit in relation to the three orders 
in the ministry first established by divine authority. 

Polycarp was another of the fathers personally known to the 
Apostles. He was indeed the fellow disciple of St. John with 
Ignatius; and Irenaeus, who was his scholar, assures us that he was 
taught by the Apostles, and familiarly conversed with many, who 
had seen our Lord in the flesh. After being consecrated by his 
preceptor bishop of Smyrna, he also wrote several epistles to the 
Churches ; but of these, one only remains, addressed to the Philip- 
pians, in which there is however express mention of the two orders 
of presbyters and deacons, and this abundant evidence in favour of 
episcopacy. Its direction, recognising what Ignatius incidentally 
notices in his epistle to the Magnesians, and all acknowledge to be 
true, that he was bishop of Smyrna; "Polycarp and the presbyters 
that are with him, to the Church of God which is at Philippi." Its 
approbation of the epistles of Ignatius, from which I have so largely 



quoted. Towards the conclusion, he thus remarks, " The epistle* 
of Ignatius which he wrote unto us, together with what others of 
his have come to our hands, we have sent to you according to. 
your order; which are subjoined to this epistle; by which you may 
be greatly profited ; for they treat of faith and patience, and of all 
things that pertain to edification in the Lord Jesus." So that this 
passage as evidently shows his perfect concurrence in all the state- 
ments, opinions, and declarations of Ignatius, who had previously 
yisited him in his journey to Rome, as if they had been written with 
his own hand. And let me add, Brethren, that none of the fathers 
stand higher in the estimation of posterity than this worthy confes- 
sor. He was called by his contemporaries, " the blessed," " the 
most admirable Polycarp." He was beyond doubt, that angel of 
the Church of Smyrna, to whom the First and the Last directed St, 
John to write, "I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty > 
(but thou art rich.V) " Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
thee a crown of life," 

He was faithful ! In the reign of Marcus Antoninus, he was brought 
before the Roman proconsul of Asia, and required to " Swear by the 
genius of Caesar," and to "reproath Christ." "Eighty and six 
years" he replied, "have I now served Christ, and he has never 
done me the least wrong r how then can I blaspheme my King and 
my Saviour?" "The proconsul continued, and said unto him, I 
have wild beasts ready, to those I will cast thee except thou repent. 
He answered, call for them then; for we Christians are fixed in 
our minds not to change from good to evil : but for me it will be good 
to be changed from evil to good. The proconsul added; seeing 
thou despisest the wild beasts, I will cause thee to be devoured by 
fire, unless thou shalt repent. Polycarp answered, thou threatenest 
me with fire, which burns for an hour, and so is extinguished ; but 
knowest not the fire of the future judgment, and of that eternal pun- 
ishment, which is reserved for the ungodly. But why tarriest thou? 
Bring forth what thou wilt." And then was he condemned to the 
iiames, his body was consumed ; but his spirit returned to God, who 
gave it. 

Yes, Brethren, such was the man, who bore evidence to the truth 
of episcopacy; who corroborated whatever Ignatius had written 
upon the subject, by annexing the epistles of his friend to the one, 
he himself addressed to th£ Philippians; and such is my confidence 



5£ 



in their veracity, their holy boldness in the faith, that I would search 
for no brighter testimony to prove the accuracy of our views of the 
ministry established in the scriptures, than the confirmation afford- 
ed by the personal knowledge of these now sainted martyrs of the 
primitive Church, More indeed is at our disposal, but my limits 
will compel me to be very brief, in the extracts which follow. We 
have the testimony of Irenseus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul, and the 
scholar of Polycarp, who says in his third book, " We can reckon 
up to you those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles them- 
selves — to whom they committed the Churches^-left them their suc- 
cessors, delivering up to them their own proper place of mastership 
in them." And in his fourth, " True knowledge is the doctrine of 
the Apostles, according to the succession of the bishops, to whom 
they delivered the Church in every place, which doctrine hath reach- 
ed us, preserved in its most full delivery." Wherein you cannot but 
observe, how fully Irenseus, who was also a martyr, confirms the 
doctrine, which I have before manifestly proved from the scriptures, 
that the Apostolick office was continued, and that it survived in the 
persons of the bishops, who, in his expressive language, obtained 
the mastership or rule of the Churches. 

We have the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus, a writer of the 
second century, who was himself only a presbyter of Alexandria, 
and therefore not to be charged with the inclination to elevate bish- 
ops over his own order. Afte^ commenting upon the duties impos- 
ed upon Christians generally in the sacred volume, he proceeds to 
remark, " There are other precepts without number, which concern 
men in particular capacities ; some of which relate to presbyters- 
others which belong to bishops, and others respecting deacons.'" 

We have the testimony of the celebrated Tertullian, also a pres- 
byter, and flourishing -at the end of the second, and commencement 
of the third century. His words are, " The chief or highest priest, 
who is the bishop, has the right of giving baptism, and after him, 
die presbyters and deacons, but not without the bishop's authority." 
Words, that as satisfactorily show the superiour office and power of 
a bishop, as any that could be selected from our vernacular tongue. 

We have the testimony of Origen, a presbyter of the third century, 
who in explaining this part of our Lord's prayer, "Forgive us our 
debts," observes, " Besides these general debts, there is a debt due 
to widows who are maintained by the Church ; another to deacons 



5d 



another to presbyters • and another to bishops; which is the greats 
est of all, and exacted by the Saviour of the whole Church, who 
will severely punish the non-payment of it." 

We have the testimony of Cyprian, at this time bishop of Car- 
thage, who thus speaks of the lowest order in the ministry, and of 
its subjection to his own ; " The deacons ought no more to attempt 
any thing against bishops, by whom deacons are made, than dea- 
cons should do against God who makes bishops." He also reproves 
his presbyters for having, during his absence, readmitted to Church 
membership, some that had been before excluded by him, saying, 
"What a dreadful prospect we must have of the divine vengeance, 
when some of the presbyters, neither mindful of the gospel, nor of 
their own station • neither regarding the future judgment of God, 
nor the bishop that now presides over them, dare arrogate entirely 
to themselves, what was never attempted under any of my prede- 
cessors." 

We have the testimony of Jerome, a presbyter of the fourth cen- 
tury, who contends for the analogy existing between the Jewish 
and Christian Churches, in these words, " What Aaron, his sons 
the priests, and the Levites were in the temple, the same are bish 
ops, presbyters, and deacons in the Church." And again, " with 
out the bishop's license neither presbyter nor deacon has a right to 
baptize." 

Yes, Brethren, we have the testimony of these distinguished di- 
vines and primitive fathers, and they constitute a cloud of unexcep 
tionable witnesses, all acknowledging the divine origin of our three 
orders in the ministry ; all giving the first rank and dignity to 
bishops, the second to presbyters, and the third to deacons ; all main- 
taining that bishops alone were the successors of the Apostles in 
their pre-eminent office and ministry. Let therefore the caviller 
be silent, let the enthusiastick seceder pause, as they review a body 
of evidence, so adverse to their pretensions, and that might easily 
be enlarged to the bulk of volumes. We have the voice of antiqui- 
ty on our side. They can only oppose it with the dictum of the 
three last centuries, pronounced by a very small minority of the 
Christian world. 

From what I have previously urged in relation to Timothy and 
Titus, particularly the first, you may however desire some addi- 
tional evidence from the same source, that they were considered 



57 



Apostles or bishops, superiour to presbyters, and alone possessing 
the power of ordination at Ephesusand Crete. Among many others 3 
Polycrates, a bishop of Ephesus near the close of the second centu- 
ry, says, that " Timothy was ordained bishop of Ephesus by the 
great Paul. 1 ' Jerome employs nearly the same words, " Timothy 
was ordained bishop of the Ephesians by the blessed Paul." Epipha- 
nius, bishop of Salamis in the fourth century, still more explicitly 
recognises his supremacy over mere presbyters, " The Apostle, 
speaking to Timothy, being then a bishop, advises him thus,— Rebuke 
not an elder, but entreat him as a father.'" While Chrysostom of 
the same age, whose praise is in all the Churches, is even more 
precise and decided in one of his homilies saying, " Paul directs 
Timothy to fulfil his ministry, being then a bishop ; for that he was 
a bishop appears from Paul's writing thus to him, Lay hands sud- 
denly on no man." And then as to Titus, if any person is disposed 
to question his episcopal character and superiority over elders, let 
him peruse these few, out of numerous authorities. In his account 
of ecclesiastical writers, J erome enumerates among others, " Titus, 
the bishop of Crete ;" and in his comment upon this declaration of 
Paul, " For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in 
order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, 
as I had appointed thee:" nothing can be more to the purpose, than 
the construction he gives to it, " Let bishops who have the power 
of ordaining presbyters attend to this." Theodoret, bishop of Cy- 
prus at the beginning of the fifth century, and esteemed one of the 
most learned fathers of the Church, also informs us, that 66 Titus, a 
famous disciple of St. Paul, was by him ordained bishop of Crete ; 
being a place of great extent ; with a commission also to ordain 
bishops under him." Take these authorities then, with the univer- 
sal opinion and practice of the Church, wherein for the first fifteen 
centuries, there is no record of a single ordination performed by 
presbyters, which was considered valid ; and but very few that were 
even attempted, the act being almost unanimously denounced as a 
usurpation of power, and the persons promoted being immediately 
degraded, as it happened to Ischiras ordained by the presbyter 
Colluthus, in the fourth century : Take these authorities, with this 
opinion and practice, and there can be no room for doubt, but that 
bishops, in virtue of their Apostolick rank, alone possessed the pow= 
er of ordination, and that their sole right was never seriously ques- 

H 1 



5& 

Uoned, until the age of Calvin, who in the sixteenth century e»tab= 
lished a new Church, in which for the first time presbyters success- 
fully usurped the authority of their superiours. Under what pre- 
tence, and with what advantage to the unity and prosperity of the 
Church, I shall hereafter have occasion to examine. 

One circumstance however I have as yet forborne to explain, to 
which I must particularly request your attention. It is a favourite 
argument with the opponents of episcopacy, and I believe the more 
a favourite from its being extremely plausible, and calculated to 
satisfy a superficial inquirer, that bishops have no more authority 
in the Church than presbyters or elders, because these titles are in- 
discriminately applied to the same office in the inspired volume, 
The fact we admit. We agree that, throughout the Acts and epis- 
tles, bishops and presbyters are frequently spoken of, as holding the 
same rank in the ministry, And what is our answer to this objec- 
tion, always regarded by us, as alike insidious and unfair? 

In the first place, that we attach no importance whatever to mere 
names-; 1 that it is the office and-the duties appertaining to that office 
about which we are alone solicitous. At the very time then, when 
according to the scriptures, bishop and presbyter were convertible 
terms, and designated the same individual minister, there existed 
the lower order of deacons, and the higher order of Apostles ; and 
it is for this threefold ministry, that we contend,, and ; not for the 
names by which! it was at any time distinguished. If it could be 
shown, that Apostles were not superiour to the then second order of 
bishops or presbyters, there Would indeed be some foundation for 
the argument, but their superiority being universally acknowledged;,, 
it falls to the ground, being only calculated to gratify the subtle 
disputant on the one hand, and to secure the credulous proselyte on. 
the other. 

For, in the..second place, while we accede to this interchangea- 
ble use of the words, bishop and presbyter in the scriptures, we 
fearlessly and confidently assert, that it ended with the Apostolick 
age, and was not afterwards employed by the primitive Christians, 
The celebrated Theodoret before mentioned, has furnished us with 
the following just solution of this merely apparent difficulty. 
" Epaphroditus was called the Apostle of the Philippians, because 
he was entrusted with the episcopal government, as being their 
bishop. For those now called bishopp,were anciently called Apes- 



59 



ties | but in process of time, the name of Apostle was left to those 
who were truly Apostles, and the name of bishop was restrained to 
those who were anciently called Apostles: Thus, Epaphroditus was 
ihe Apostle of the Philippians, Titus of the Cretans, and Timothy 
of the Asiaticks," 

A more triumphant vindication of episcopacy cannot be irwagined, 
They, who succeeded to the Apostolick office, out of reverence to 
such of their predecessors, as were immediately called by Christ, 
appear to have relinquished to them the more dignified title of 
Apostle, and to have appropriated to themselves the humbler name 
of bishop, originally bestowed upon the second order of the minis- 
try in common with that of presbyter; but thenceforward exclu- 
sively, attached to the first, and never afterwards resumed by the 
second. The change was only in name, the two offices or orders 
remained as separate and distinct as they were before. Bishops 
were what the Apostles had been, and presbyters, ceasing to call 
themselves bishops, looked up to these, as their superiours, as they 
had formerly looked up to the Apostles, separated to that office, by 
their Lord and Master in person. It was precisely, as if by the 
common consent of the American people, springing from gratitude 
for the services, and veneration for the memory of Washington, it 
should be determined for the future, to appropriate to him alone s 
the title of President, and to all his successors in the presidential 
office created by the constitution, what is now regarded as the less 
dignified name of Governour. It would not abstract one iota from 
the constitutional privileges and powers attached to the office itself. 
Its incumbent would still superintend and govern, as he now super- 
intends and governs ; and he would be considered the merest trifler, 
who should have the folly to assert, that a change of names had pro- 
duced a material change in official rank and authority. The title, 
Imperator, was conferred upon the victorious generals of Rome, 
during the period of the commonwealth, Was the Imperator, Au- 
gustus, no more than a general? Reply is needless. You know the 
distinction, you perceive its application ; and thus I dismiss a most 
evasive subterfuge, as utterly unworthy of Christian candour and 
Christian truth. 

On the whole, Brethren, although I may have fatigued you by a 
recourse to so many authentick records, I cannot but think, that 
you must concur with me in the opinion, that the clear, decided, and 



unanimous testimony of all antiquity is to be found arrayed on the 
side of our venerable Church, and her truly Apostolick ministry. 
In adverting to the principles, with which the discourse was com- 
menced, will you then abide by this testimony ? Or, will you pre- 
fer to coincide in sentiment with our opponents, as far better 
qualified to expound the scriptures, and determine matters of fact 
than they, who were either brought up at the Apostles' feet, or 
were soon after eyewitnesses of the institutions^ which universally 
prevailed, and that were universally considered to have had their 
origin from men, who spake and acted as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost? J will not for a moment permit myself to doubt, but^ 
thatyour'decision will be on the side, where scripture and antiquity 
are known to harmonize^ where they combine to erect upon the 
towers and bulwarks of the Church, the ensigns of sacred truth, and 
of legitimate power and glory. 

It is indeed strange to me, that well informed Christians should 
ever arrive at a different conclusion. It necessarily involves them 
in this plain and palpable contradiction. They readily receive the 
brief testimony of the fathers upon some subjects, and they reject 
it upon one, where they are far more voluminous and explicit. For 
does the baptist deny, that the scriptures allow of sprinkling or of 
infant baptism? After having exhausted to no convincing effect, 
the various passages of the bible, which bear upon the controversy, 
they can confidently appeal to these very fathers, and claim the 
victory in virtue of evidence derived from them. Do persons con- 
tend, that there has been no change of the sabbath from the seventh 
to the first day of the week or the Lord's day? They do not scru- 
ple to repair to the same witnesses, nor upon their authority do 
they hesitate to proclaim a similar triumph. 

These however are comparatively minor points. There is one, 
of vastly greater moment, and they who persist in discrediting the 
records of antiquity, in relation to the Christian ministry, put in 
the hands of the infidel the most powerful weapon, which he cam 
possibly wield against the volume of inspiration. For when he 
contests its authenticity ; when he asserts, that the present canon 
of scripture, including the gospels, the acts, the epistles, and the 
book of revelations, is spurious, and no more entitled to our con- 
fidence, than the many false gospels, acts, and epistles, which have 
also descended to our age ; how will these persons be able to meet 



131 



him without recourse to the very men, whose testimony they re= 
nounce upon the subject of episcopacy, and whom the infidel may 
therefore argue are undeserving of the slightest credit upon any 
other? 

See you not. Brethren, the dilemma in which they place them- 
selves ? Know ye not, that all the external evidence, in favour of 
the integrity of the present copies of the bible, rests upon the ve- 
racity of the fathers alone ? Leave them entirely out of view, and 
there is no longer any certainty about it. The several parts o£ 
which it is composed were collected together, not by the Apostles, 
but by them. In the general councils convened by the primitive 
bishops, it was determined, what books purporting to be written by 
inspired men were authentick, what were spurious; and by that 
determination has the Christian world found itself compelled to 
abide. For once admit that their judgment was wrong in relation 
to one book, and it would cast a shade of suspicion over the resi- 
due. Once admit, that their peculiar situation gave them no great- 
er advantage, than we have, to judge correctly, and the infidel may 
laugh in 3^our face, when you tell him, that this gospel was written 
by Matthew, and that by John, this epistle by Peter, and that by 
Paul. We are consequently obliged to rely upon them, when we 
maintain the genuineness of all ; upon their proximity to the Apos* 
tolick age, and the superiour degree of knowledge, which they de- 
rived from that single circumstance. And I ask no more, when I 
appeal to them and their writings in behalf of the Church founded 
by Christ and his Apostles. If they are good witnesses in the one 
case, they are good in the other; while the reverse is equally true, 
if they are to be disbelieved concerning episcopacy, they are to be 
disbelieved concerning the canon of scripture, I have no right to 
tell you, that one single leaf of the new testament is a genuine 
transcript of the original manuscript of its professed author. 

You discover therefore, Brethren, the importance and the pro- 
priety of reposing implicit confidence in the testimony, which I have 
collected from the fathers; and may Almighty God in his wisdom 
enable you to bring the same to good effect ; may it cause you to 
become more and more attached to the Church, which with his own 
right hand he hath planted in the vineyard of the world ; may it pre- 
serve you effectually from being seduced from that communion with 
it, whose obligation is to be traced to its divine origin and authority; 



may it induce you to adhere to it, to its Apostolick ministry, its 
pure and spiritual worship, its truly catholick and evangelical doc- 
trines, upon the same principles of love and affection, which upon 
an occasion somewhat similar animated the righteous soul of Peter, 
a From that time,"' says the evangelist speaking of our Lord, " From 
that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with 
him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then 
Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast 
the words of eternal life." Yes, Brethren, the Church in her minis- 
try, her liturgy, her articles, her bible, and her great Head ; the 
Church has the words of eternal life, and if ye desert her, where 
will ye find a better ? For my own part, I could almost as soon be 
tempted to desert my Saviour and my God ; and therefore, " For 
Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I 
will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness,, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii." Amen< 



SERMON VI. 

isaiah lxh\ I, 

For Ziorts sake will J not hold my peace, and for Jerusaleni's sake 
I will not rest^until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness^ 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp thai bitmeth. 

I CANNOT but flatter myself, that the last discourse deliv- 
ered upcn these words, presented the most clear and invincible tes- 
♦ imony from the primitive fathers, of the divine origin of our epis- 
copal ministry ; a ministry comprehending the three distinct orders 
of bishops, presbyters, and deacons. Had it been necessary, I could 
have extracted volumes of evidence of a precisely similar purport 
There is no credible author of that early age whose writings can be 
brought to bear against me. All speak the same language. Ali 
advert to the same organization of the Church of Christ, and seem 



63 

to be' utterly unconscious of any seriously opposing pretensions. 
They feared indeed that they might arise. They knew that the 
feeling of insubordination was natural to the heart of man, and 
hence their repeated exhortations to unity, their hostility to schism, 
their commendation of inferiour ministers and laymen, for continu- 
ing in subjection to the chief ecclesiastick appointed and ordained 
of God to rule over their spiritual concerns. And yet our modern 
separatists would fain persuade us to a contrary belief; fain per- 
suade us, that the Apostles committed the ministry of the Church to 
the one single order of presbyters, and that these alone possess a 
legitimate claim to the execution of its functions. But on the sup- 
position that they are right, what might we not reasonably expect 
to find in those remnants of antiquity, to which I have referred you, 
as having survived the corroding lapse of time? A single dissent- 
ing presbyter of the present age, or a synod of presbyters, in ad- 
dressing a kindred Church, would apply the like title to its minis- 
ters, and if there were^associate Churches, all their pastors would 
be placed upon a par, and no one would be distinguished from th& 
rest by an appellation, implying pre-eminence in ecclesiastical rank 
and station, 

Under such circumstances and from such a source, an epistle to 
the presbyters of New- York, of Philadelphia, or Baltimore would 
be strictly correct ; it would correspond with the acknowledged 
principles of the sect. But if an episcopalian should write, he would 
either address the bishop alone, or in conjunction with his presby- 
ters and deacons. And how was it in primitive times? Do we in 
such cases hear of presbyters only ? Is no higher office adverted to ; 
no office vested in the person of one individual, and to whom they 
are supposed to yield obedience, as their superiour in dignity and 
power? Let Ignatius answer, Ignatius, the disciple of John; and 
Onesimus will be found to have been bishop of Ephesus, Damas 
of Magnesia, Polybius of Tralles, and Polycarp of Smyrna. Dea- 
cons were in each of those cities, they are named in his epistles^ 
and the inferiority of their station is recognised. Presbyters also 
were there. Even the scriptures themselves speak of the elders of 
Ephesus. Whence then, if we are wrong, and our adversaries are 
right, whence this unaccountable language ? Why is one individu- 
al singled out from all others, and dignified with the title of bishop ? 
Why, if we peruse all early antiquity, do we hear of him only? and 



64 



riot of two, three, four, or five bishops, residing at the same time in 
a city comprising multitudes of Christians, and adorned with 
numerous temples consecrated to the publick worship of God ? 

Certainly Brethren, if the doctrine of sacerdotal equality be 
genuine, here is an enigma, that never wasj and that never can be 
solved, But admit the Apostolick origin of episcopacy, and the 
clouds disperse* every difficulty vanishes, the fathers speak intelli= 
gibly, and are freed from the imputation of using the grossest mis= 
nomers, And let me tell you a better argument in our favour can 
scarcely be imagined, Many bishops in a single place at the same 
moment would have given no slight colour to the idea of their 
being o'f the like order with presbyters; but the undeviating evi- 
dence of there being no more than one establishes the permanency 
of the Apostolick office in that one, beyond all reasonable contra- 
diction. Ignatius upon this subject is very definite, "Be not de- 
ceived, Brethren : if any one follows him that makes a schism in 
the Church, he shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If any one 
walks after any other opinion, he agrees not with the passion of 
Christ. Wherefore let it be your endeavour to partake all of the 
same holy eucharist. For there is but one flesh of our Lord Jesus 
Christ j and one cup, in the unity of his blood ; one altar; as also 
there is oxe bishop, together with his presbytery, and the deacons 
my fellow servants i that so whatsoever ye do, ye may do it accor 
ding to the will of God." 

Strong language this, and not the less worthy of remembrance 
because Ignatius here insists, that the elevation of a single individu= 
al to be the bishop of a city, having many presbyters and Churches 
is according to the will of God. And where was his authority for 
the assertion? He knew the scriptures, few persons have known 
them better, and from thence ascertained the location of Timothy at 
Ephesus, and Titus at Crete. He possessed the book of the Reve- 
lations of St. John, his preceptor, and there perceived this aged 
Apostle, under the direction of Christ, writing to the Angel of each 
of the seven Churches of Asia. And who was the Angel ? You have 
only to read those short epistles, in order to be convinced, that it 
was the name applied to the ecclesiastick possessing sup^pme power 
and authority in the Church where he resided. Such is the testimo- 
ny of all the fathers. Not a doubt existed in their minds of the 
identity of the two words, angel and bishop, Hilary among others 



65 



affirms it, u Angelos episcopos dicit, sicut docetur in Apocalypsi 
Johannis," and even the names of the individuals are given, who 
at that time held the bishopricks of Ephesus and Smyrna. It is in- 
deed a remarkable fact, that the Angel of the former place is com- 
mended in the scriptures, for having exerted his authority in this 
manner, " Thou hast tried th^m whi n say they are Apostles, and are 
not, and hast found th_.n liars." But how could he do this, if he 
did not fill the Apostolick office himself? If the presbyters of 
Ephesus, mentioned in the Acts, were associated with him in the 
same ministerial order? Or why should he proceed to try and 
examine the pretensions of those impostors, if already persuaded, 
that the Apostolick office was limited to those originally appointed? 

Surely Brethren, these are circumstances utterly at war with the 
imaginary blending of the three primitive orders into one. On 
such a principle, I can never reconcile the direction of the epistles 
to a single person, nor can I account for the sole jurisdiction he ap- 
pears to have enjoyed, notwithstanding the presence of a numerous 
body of presbyters, holding as it is said the same rank and entitled 
to claim the same power. But upon our episcopal theory, there is 
no difficulty, no usurpation of undelegated authority. The two 
words translated Apostle and Angel are of the same signification. 
They respectively import, " one that is sent," " a messenger," and 
hence the propriety of Theodoret's expression, in accounting for 
the change of title, to which I directed your attention in my last 
discourse. " Those now called bishops, were anciently called 
Apostles ; but in process of time, the name of Apostle was left 
to those who were truly Apostles, and the name of bishop was 
restrained to those who were anciently called Apostles." For when 
he speaks of their being truly Apostles, you are to consider, that 
the first of that order were literally " messengers," commissioned 
to " teaeh all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." But their successors in office, 
being at length permanently settled in separate diocesses, in different 
towns and cities, the title u episcopos," from which bishop is deriv- 
ed, became more appropriate, inasmuch as it is a compound, an- 
swering exaetlv to our English word " overseer." And that this 
explanation is entitled to full belief, evidently appears from the fact, 
that even James, one of the twelve, was permanently stationed at 
Jerusalem, and is therefore perpetually called by the fathers, the 

I 



60 



first bishop of Jerusalem. The same remark applies to Epaphro- 
ditus, to Timothy, to Titus, and to the seven angels, all in virtue of 
their succession called to be Apostles, and yet by all antiquity de- 
signated, as bishops of their respective cities, owing to their su- 
preme oversight of the Churches therein established. 

Another, and as I conceive, an invincible argument in support of 
the divine institution of episcopacy, is derived from what is univer- 
sally admitted by its opponents. For when they tell us, that the 
government of the Churches was left by the Apostles to presbyters 
alone, they are forced to acknowledge its extremely limited dura- 
tion. According to some, it was extinct before the death of St, 
John. Others think, that about this time it began to disappear. 
Others, that by little and little, it gradually vanished during the 
second and third centuries ; while no writer amongst them ventures 
to assert, that it continued in any part of the world, beyond the 
term of three hundred years. 

Here then Brethren, permit me seriously to inquire : Is it credible 
that such a government as this could have been instituted by the 
Apostles; a government so fading and fleeting in its character; a 
government, so soon to be obliterated from the face of the earth, by 
the unanimous adoption of episcopacy ? Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, it is far too marvellous for my belief, and I cannot but think for 
yours. Almighty God, in his infinite mercy, establishes one 
Church to-day ; his adorable Son, after having purchased it with 
his precious blood, promises to be with it always, even unto the end 
of the world ; and lo, to-morrow it is not \ To-morrow, like Noah's 
dove, not a resting place can it find for the sole of its foot amongst 
all the nations, that had originally sought a refuge beneath the 
droppings of its sanctuary ! If this is not impliedly disparaging the 
divine wisdom and foresight, I know not what is. If this is not call- 
ing in question the faith and obedience of the primitive Christians 
and martyrs, so often and so justly extolled, I know not what con- 
stitutes faith, nor what obedience. Before one, two, or at most,, 
three centuries have elapsed, episcopacy a human invention com- 
pletely triumphs over a ministry established under the guidance of 
heaven, and recommended by men endued with the inspiration of 
the Highest. If this be true, let us hear no more of the unchangea- 
ble character of God, or of the perpetuity of those institutions which 
he does not expressly abolish. Let us hear no more of the extra- 



ordinary piety and holiness of our fathers in Christ. I can only 
wonder, that they had not discarded baptism and the supper of the 
Lord, as well as the ministry, by which they were to be celebrated. 

No, no, Brethren, it will not, cannot do. Such a change and per- 
version of the true Church, such a successful usurpation over it, will 
never be seriously credited by persons, who can be persuaded to 
dismiss all bias and prejudice from their minds ; who shall enter upon 
this investigation with a single eye to the discovery of truth; who 
shall determine to follow where it leads, and upon this principle 
alone make Up their judgment for time and for eternity. Party 
spirit may make us any thing and every thing ; may for a season 
blind the eyes, and warp the understandings of men; but almighty 
truth with irresistible force will eventually storm the ramparts of 
schism, and in the person of its divine Author, bring back the wan- 
dering to his fold again. 

Particularly, when I have also to remark to you, that this alleged 
usurpation on the part of bishops was permitted to take place, with- 
out one noble effort to arrest its progress; one burst of indignation 
from the injured, lifting up their cry to heaven, and invoking the 
continuance of that liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. 
Let us bring the subject home to ourselves; let us imagine, that 
the existing protestant bishops were to endeavour, either by force, 
or combining their efforts, by collusion, to proselyte all the various 
denominations, and unite them in the one holy catholick or uni- 
versal Church. Would not one voice be raised against it, not one 
outcry against persecution, or if persecution were renounced, 
against the subtlety and intrigue of mere propagandists ? You 
know very well, that upon such an attempt, the protestant world 
would rise up in arms against them; they would vigorously repel 
every assault upon the respective citadels of their religion, and 
only yield up these beloved sanctuaries of their hearts, with their 
fortunes and their lives. If the sword were requisite, it would leap 
from innumerable scabbards ; if the pen alone, myriads of writers 
would exhaust all their theok>gical learning in the contest, they 
would compose a multitude of books, and these, with the arguments 
they contained, would descend to the latest posterity. 

But be astonished, ye moderns, and wonder at the forbearance 
and even the pusillanimity of the ancients. If bishops were not 
the successors of the Apostles in office: if their powers were not 



68 



derived from them ; then did they usurp their station, and lord it 
over God's heritage, as the expression is, without one exclamation 
of surprise, or one manly vindication of the Church and the min- 
istry it had received by the appointment of the Lord Jesus. All 
opposition was hushed as the foot of night. Our most recondite 
opposers can discover no trace of it in ecclesiastical history. They 
are obliged to levy a tax upon conjecture, whenever they would 
settle the era of this wonderful revolution, and even then, they are 
unable to agree. Some will have it at one period, and some at 
another. Rolling centuries intervene and divide their judgment, 
when it might reasonably be thought, that such an event could no 
more be obliterated from the memory of man than the era of the 
crusades, or the epoch of the reformation. 

Ancient authors indeed, and their works are abundant ; authors 
of unblemished reputation and undoubted veracity. But if you 
search the writings of presbyters, who never attained the episcopal 
rank, even they are silent on the * subject, and mute as the very 
graves into which they retired. They say nothing of prelatick 
ambition, nothing about the invasion of presbyterian rights. If 
you look over the folios of bishops, there are no arguments to 
justify their revival and personal assumption of the Apostolick 
office, none to silence the clamour of one intrepid champion of the 
ministry once delivered to the saints. On the contrary you will 
see, that all those writers of whatever rank and whatever country; 
all those writers unite in ascribing to episcopacy, the sanctity and 
the authority of a divine institution. They tell you, that the Apos- 
tles nominated bishops to be their successors in the several Church- 
es planted by them. They confine to them the sole right of or- 
dination, and most cheerfully did presbyters acquiesce in the 
speedy degradation of the few, who obtained an imaginary pro- 
motion, by the imposition of the hands of their inferiour order. 
And what is the fair inference to be gathered from this statement, 
this undeviating harmony in the records of those early times? To 
me, it speaks volumes in behalf of our construction of the scrip- 
tures. To me, it elevates episcopacy upon a lofty eminence, on 
which is inscribed in letters of living light, This is my will, and 
this is my ministry saith the Lord of Hosts. " He that hatl^an ear^ 
let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches." 



Waiving however, for the present, the testimony of the fathers ; 
let us imagine it possible to resort to some other tribunal, with the 
view of determining our conflicting opinions. Let us imagine, 
that, preserved by some inscrutable providence of God, a Christian 
Church could be found in some sequestered corner of the globe, 
which from remotest time had enjoyed no intercourse whatever 
with their brethren professing the same faith. We know that the 
twelve were despatched on their errands of mercy into far distant 
lands, and of most of them, that no authentick memorials have 
been transmitted to us. Imagine then, that a Church of their 
planting could be found. Would not the character of the ministry 
it possessed be considered a safe guide, in enabling us to decide 
upon that, which was instituted by the Apostles, whose labours are 
known, although we contrive to interpret them differently? If, for 
example, presbyters alone were to be discovered in such a Church, 
would it not furnish our friends of that exclusive order with abund- 
ant cause of congratulation and triumph? If bishops, with pres- 
byters and deacons in reverent subjection to them, would it not be 
equally the source of joy and exultation with us ? Upon such a 
statement, it would be next to impossible to avoid either conclusion, 
or to object to the providential character of the discovery itself, 
provided it could be effected. 

Be it remembered then, that it has. India was the place, and the 
celebrated navigator, Vasco de Gama, the discoverer, in the year 
fifteen hundred and three. " When the Portuguese arrived they 
were agreeably surprised to find upwards of a hundred Christian 
Churches on the coast of Malabar. But when they became ac- 
quainted with the purity and simplicity of their worship, they were 
offended. These Churches, said the Portuguese, belong to the 
Pope. Who is the Pope, said the natives, we never heard of him? 
The European priests were yet more alarmed, when they found that 
these Hindoo Christians maintained the order and discipline of a 
regular Church under episcopal jurisdiction : and that for thirteen 
hundred years past, they had enjoyed a succession of bishops ap- 
pointed by the patriarch of Antioch. We, said they, are of the 
true faith, whatever you from the west may be ; for we come from 
the place where the followers of Christ were first called Christians." 

Their Churches were therefore Syrian, but were soon subjected 
to the inquisitorial power of Rome, " At a compulsory Synod, one 



10 



hundred and fifty of the Syrian clergy appeared ;" and, by the 
Romish Archbishop Menezes, "were accused of the following 
practices and opinions: That they had married wives; that they 
owned but two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's supper; that 
they neither invoked saints, nor worshipped images, nor believed 
in purgatory : and that they had no other orders or names of dig- 
nity in the Church, than bishop, priest, and deacon." At length, 
" the Churches upon the sea coast were compelled to acknowledge 
the supremacy of the Pope.'" But those, " in the interiour would 
not yield to Rome. After a show of submission for a little while, 
they proclaimed eternal war against the inquisition ; they hid their 
books, fled occasionally to the mountains, and sought the protection 
of the native princes, who had always been proud of their al- 
liance." 

These details I have extracted from the " Christian Researches 
in Asia" of the celebrated English missionary, Buchanan ; who 
proceeds to inform us, that when " two centuries had elapsed with- 
out any particular information concerning the Syrian Christians in 
the interiour," (those who would not submit to Rome,) and when 
"it was doubted by many whether they existed at all," he " con- 
ceived the design of visiting them." He did so, and found them 
in all their original simplicity and purity. He conversed with 
them freely ; and do you wish to know by whom their Church was 
founded? According to their records, by the Apostle Thomas. 
After diligent inquiry, the good missionary says, "I am satisfied 
that we have as good authority for believing that the Apostle Thomas 
died in India, as that the Apostle Peter died at Rome." Do you 
wish to know what was at this time the character of its ministry ? 
It was composed as it always had been, of bishops, presbyters, and 
deacons, the offices being as distinctly marked, as those of any 
episcopal communion whatever. Buchanan saw numbers of the 
two lower orders. On one occasion, he "was received at the door 
of the Church by three Kasheeshas, that is, presbyters or priests, 
who were habited in like manner, in white vestments." " There 
were aiso present two Shumshanas, or deacons." On another, he 
visited " Mar Dionysius, the metropolitan of the Syrian Church," 
and after a long interview, in which the conversation turned upon 
protestant episcopacy, he observes, " The bishop was desirous to 
know something of the other Churches which had separated from 



71 



Rome, I was ashamed to tell him how many they were. I men- 
tioned that there was a Kasheesha or presbyter Church in our own 
kingdom, in which every Kasheesha was equal to another. — Are 
there no Shumshanas?; (Deacons in holy orders.) None.— And 
what, is there nobody to overlook the Kasheeshas? Not one. — • 
There must be something imperfect here, said he." 

And now, Brethren, adverting to my introductory remarks, in- 
sisting upon the weight which would be justly due to such testi- 
mony as this, could it be obtained, I may with undissembled satis- 
faction exclaim, strange disclosure ! Most gratifying coincidence 
between our own and the Apostolick Syrian Church! For other 
discoveries, the name of the pious and benevolent missionary, 
Buchanan, has resounded with applause far and wide; but for this, 
it has been suffered to glide into obscurity by the very men who 
had been foremost on the roll of his panegyrists. It did not com- 
port with their previous partialities, and was not therefore allowed 
to ^diminish aught from their partisan zeal, The time had not ar- 
rived, when by a magnanimous effort, they could conquer all their 
prejudices, and seriously endeavour, by breaking down the partition 
walls which now separate the various denominations, to unite 
them all in the one mystical body of which Christ our Saviour is 
the great and glorious head. No, the time had not arrived, and I 
know not when it will. But this I know, that if this Syrian Church, 
so long secluded from the eyes of Christendom, had been presby- 
terian in its economy, we should have never heard the last of those 
notes of triumph, which would have been chanted throughout the 
dissenting Churches. The decidedly episcopal character it ex- 
hibits is what they cannot endure. It substantiates indeed all that 
we are in the habit of maintaining; it proves episcopacy to have 
been as old as Christianity; but then it lays the axe to the very 
root of schism, and the tall, umbrageous tree would still lift up its 
ambitious head, and interpose a dark shade between the nations and 
the light of revealed truth. 

Among other objections to the termination of our sectarian con- 
troversies, which I have heard from our protestant brethren : it has 
been said, that in order to effect it, we must all return into the 
bosom of the mother, meaning thereby the Roman Catholick Church. 
But in my apprehension, the objection is founded in views altogeth- 
er erroneous and indefensible. Can you not reform without annihi - 



lating? Can you not correct abuses without destroying the thing 
abused? If the bible were to be now printed with numerous cor- 
ruptions of the received text, could not those corruptions be hereaf- 
ter expunged, and the inspiration of that bible be still maintained? 
If our two houses of congress were to enact laws and enforce them, 
without even asking the approbation of the President, could not 
such proceedings be revised and corrected without forming a new 
constitution? Would it not rather appear, that this violated instru- 
ment could be redeemed in a legal manner from the hands of its in- 
novators, and be restored in all its original purity and integrity? 

Undoubtedly Brethren, and such was the nature and course of the 
reformation in England. It brought back the Church of Christ to 
its original state. Because the Roman Catholicks believed in the 
bible, the reformers of that age did not reject it. Nor on this ac- 
count did they reject the two sacraments of baptism and the supper 
of the Lord, nor th'e necessity of repentance, of faith, and obedience, 
nor the cross of Christ, nor the doctrine of the resurrection from 
the dead and a judgment to come, followed by the respective issues 
of heaven and hell. But all these they retained, as having their 
foundation in holy oracles, and therefore worthy of all men to be 
received and had in reverence. And for a like reason, did they 
adhere to such parts of the external order and constitution of the 
Church and its ministry, which they discovered to be upheld by 
the express warrant of scripture, and the practice of all antiquity. 
They did not set up a new Church, with a new priesthood; but they 
reformed the old, they restored it to its primitive beauty and sim- 
plicity, they swept away the rubbish of ages, which had collected 
around its altars, and presented it anew to Christ, as " a glorious 
Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing."' 

There is indeed much of misconception prevailing upon this sub- 
ject. It would seem to be supposed by many, that the claims of 
papacy were urged and successfully maintained at the first founda- 
tion of the Church in imperial Rome. But no such thing. It was 
long ages after, that the bishop of this city claimed supremacy over 
his brethren of the same order, and arrogated to himself the title of 
Christ's vicegerent upon earth. Nothing of the ki;ud appears to have 
been contemplated by the early fathers. So late as the beginning 
of the fifth century, we have this pointed and conclusive testimony 
from Jerome, "Wheresoever a bishop is, whether at Rome or at 



IS 

Eugubium, at Constantinople or at Rhegium* at Alexandria or at 
Tani, he has the same merit and the same priesthood, neither the 
power of riches, nor the humility of poverty makes a bishop higher 
or lower, but they are all successors of the Apostles." And this is 
the very doctrine upon which the English reformers proceeded. 
They retained the three original orders of bishops, priests, and 
deacons ; and resolutely and truly maintained, that the Pope had no 
more authority over them, than they had over him. By Apostolick 
appointment his predecessors were bishops of Rome and of Rome 
only. All other jurisdiction was gradually, and as they proved, 
wrongfully obtained. Among those reformers were Cranmer, 
Latimer, and others, who were bishops in the Roman Church, and 
their change to the protestant faith did not vacate their episcopal 
rank. They were as good and lawful bishops afterwards, as they 
were before. The legality of their commission was as little affect- 
ed by the displeasure of the pontiff, from whom they withdrew, as it 
could have been by that of the patriarch o£ Constantinople. Look 
at the language of Jerome, and you will readily discern, that he 
fully bears me out in the argument. The Apostles appointed bish- 
ops to preside over the Churches in various cities, towns, and dis- 
tricts of country; but they were all independent of each other, no 
matter who had the largest or who the richest diocess ; independent, 
for the very reason, that they were all equally the " successors of 
the Apostles." 

To this primitive form of episcopacy then, did the English re- 
formers return, when they disclaimed all allegiance to the triple 
crown, and defied the thunders of the Vatican. The plea of being 
obliged to retrace our steps, and enter the Roman communion, in 
order to embrace the mother Church, is consequently in the mouth 
of a protestant altogether idle and fallacious. There is no such 
mother. If there were, Jerusalem is entitled to the honour, inas- 
much as it was there, that the first Church was organized with the 
Apostle James to preside over its destinies. 

To illustrate my meaning, as clearly as possible, I will suppose 
that the present pious and worthy bishop at Bardstown, his pres- 
byters, deacons, and laity were to renounce their own, and em- 
brace the protestant doctrines. They would then stand in precise- 
ly the same attitude, which was occupied at the reformation by the 
Engli=h episcopal Church. A branch of the true primitive and 

K 



Apostolick Church would be reformed; but a new one would not be 
created. There would be the same ministry and the same sacra- 
ments. The same good old bishop could continue to ordain and send 
forth ministers to feed the flock of Christ. In your estimation, in 
the estimation of all protestants, a papal bull could no more deprive 
him of his episcopal office, than could an anathema from the see of 
Canterbury or from that of Philadelphia. 

With such views, views that are founded upon reason and scrip- 
ture, I am entirely heedless of those ill advised jeers, which are de- 
signed to associate our own, with the Romish Church in the famil- 
iar relation of a mother and her daughter. Were it true; I have 
long since learnt, that real faith and holiness, undissembled love 
and benevolence can be cherished among Catholicks, in a manner, 
that would do no discredit to the best protectant in Christendom; 
and therefore, while I heartily abjure their doctrinal errours, I will 
still esteem the practical graces of many of their number., and love 
them for their work's sake. 

In drawing to a conclusion, permit me, Brethren,- to -apologize for 
the continuance, if not for the length of these discourses. I could 
not embody all that I have to say within a shorter compass, without 
materially infringing upon the ulteriour object in view, I wish 
them to be read, as well as heard, I wish, by meeting every sup- 
posed or rather every prominent objection,, and by enforcing every 
prominent truth, to present the claims of our Church before a com- 
munity but little acquainted with her origin, her doctrines,- and her 
worship, and for this reasTra, as little inclined to appreciate her 
value. 

You must therefore, for a few sabbaths more, continue your for- 
bearance, and indulge me with a favourable audience. Hitherto, I 
have spoken plainly and decidedly; but I disdain to be influenced 
by the malice and the bitterness of an evil spirit. Inferences in- 
deed may be very fairly and justly drawn altogether hostile to the 
belief and practice of many respectable bodies of Christians. But 
I do not like the baptist the less, because he freely and boldly main- 
tains the invalidity of infant baptism, and the necessity of perform- 
ing the rite ia the case of adults by immersion. He is doubtless honest 
and faithful to his sentiments, and I like him the better for the free- 
dom and the intrepidity with which they are avowed. How else, if 
he is right, and we are wrong, how else, can we be. convinced of 



75 



©or errour. For although my own opinion upon these subjects is 
believed to be fixed and stable as the everlasting hills, yet is it no 
such trifling affair to be in all things conformable to the institutions 
of the gospel, but that upon conviction I could gladly pass beneath 
the waters, and emblematically wash away my sins in the fullest 
laver of regeneration. Never then, will I bestow an opprobrious 
epithet upon those, who deem immersion in riper years essential to 
baptism, and on this account, with perfect consistency, refuse to all 
others the privileges connected with their communion. 

And what I willingly accord to them, I as confidently demand for 
myself In investigating the truths of scripture, it will never an- 
swer to be excessively anxious about the consequences. The 
preacher must not fail to persuade men by the terrors of the Lord, 
because the doctrine exposes a hearer to the pains and penalties of 
eternal death. Nor must he hesitate to proclaim and defend the 
true Apostolick Church of Christ, from the fear of inferentially in- 
vading the pretensions of others. But is he satisfied of her divine 
right and heavenly origin ? For her, he must exert all the fervour 
of his heart, all the energies of his soul, all the strength of his intel- 
lect, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salva- 
tion as a lamp that burnetii. 

And this, by God's grace and protection, I will continue to do. I 
will neither start at a shadow, nor tremble at the sound of a voice. 
I will neither court the phantom, good report, without good desert., 
nor resist the counsels of revelation teaching me, that " if I yet 
pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." I would rathep 
win an approving smile from him, in my honest endeavours to pro- 
mote the cause of his Church and of rational religion, than to creep 
to my grave with a coward pace,, not daring to venture a word 
against schism, heresy, and errour, nor to hazard an opinion to the 
prejudice of superstition, fanaticism and folly, The latter course 
would indeed be both shameful and treacherous j but the former will 
be sure to bring a man peace at the last, to impart strength and confi- 
dence to his departing spirit, and at length land him on those bliss-* 
ful shores, where there is rest, and glory, and beatitude treasured 
up for the true servants of God for ever and ever. Amen. 



SERMON VII. 



isaiah lxii. 1. 

For Zioifs sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusaleni's sake 
' I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth, 

HAVING already succeeded in proving, that the Roman 
Catholick is no more than a branch of the Apostolick Church; that 
the pope has no greater'daim to preside over its concerns, than any 
Other Christian bishop ; and that consequently the English reforma- 
tion, under the guidance of bishops, only restored things to their 
original purity and order : I proceed to notice an objection intimate- 
ly connected with this part of my subject. 

For when we assert, that by divine appointment, episcopal or- 
dination is alone legitimate and valid, an indelible stigma is attempt- 
ed to be fastened upon it, owing to the channel through which it 
has been derived. No matter indeed, if the bible has been trans- 
mitted through the same instrumentality ; it is still pure and incor- 
rupt. No matter, if the Almighty by means of the Roman Catho- 
lick has preserved to our use, the sacraments of baptism and the 
Lord's supper; they are not the less sacred and divine. No mat- 
ter, if presbyterian ordination itself, by confession, can only be 
traced upward through priests of the same communion ; not one 
solitary voice is therefore raised to denounce it, as unwarranted and 
unscriptural. 

And yet, the moment we vindicate the sole right of a bishop 
to ordain and send forth the ministers of Christ's flock, that very 
moment all the prejudices existing against, and all the odium at- 
tached to the Roman Church are unhesitatingly brought to act upon 
us. Episcopacy becomes at once a relick of popery; it is violent- 
ly assailed as one of the most prominent marks ©f the beast, and 
is attempted to be written down and invalidated under the pretence 
of this polluted connexion. 



n 



But while I am far from being disposed to justify what protest- 
ants concur in considering the unhappy errours of a Church, that 
can still boast of her Ganganelli, her Fenelon, and her Bridaine; 
it is well to remind you of a principle universally admitted in the 
science of civil government and of jurisprudence. For who is 
there to imagine, that the legal acts of a monarch, and even of our 
own president are susceptible of being annulled, through any stainj 
which may attach to their private characters? Does it destroy the 
efficacy of their signatures to the laws of the land? Does it cancel 
all their appointments to the offices within their patronage? Or 
the judge upon the bench; does it vitiate his decisions, and vacate 
the official stations he has the power to fill ? You know Brethren, 
as well as I can tell you, that personal purity and reputation have 
nothing to do with the lawful exercise of established authority. 
They neither add to, nor abstract one particle from all vested rights. 

The same principle prevails in religion. The minister of the 
gospel may be a concealed hypocrite, he may have a heart as black 
as hell itself, and still his merely instrumental acts have all the 
virtue and efficacy they could have, provided they had been cele- 
brated by the purest hands and heart in the priesthood of Christ. 
Although his doctrines be false, and his life abominable in the eyes 
of God ; upon its being ascertained by his fellow men, those, he 
married, are not remarried ; those, he baptized, are not rebaptized; 
those, to whom he has administered the holy eucharist, are not 
therefore to believe, that it has not been worthily received. And 
precisely thus with ordination. I never knew a dissenting clergy- 
man to be reordained, owing to the secret iniquity of his ordainers 
being afterwards revealed. I have never heard of an episcopalian » 
divine, upon whom the ceremony was re-performed, because of the 
acknowledged delinquency of the bishop who first conferred upon 
him holy orders. And never, no never, but as a popular argument 
addressed to the ear, and not to the understanding, never can it be 
maintained, that the successive ordinations of a long line of Roman 
bishops have had the effect of vitiating the episcopal office, origina- 
ted according to the will of heaven. It would subvert every thing 
sacred. It would subvert the bible, the sacraments, the ministry, 
and the Christian Church itself. I would indeed have all the min- 
isters of Jesus to wash their hands in innocency, to be zealous and 
faithful in their holy calling; but if they will not, if they will pre- 



78 



fer to be hypocrites with men and dissemblers with God; praised 
be his name, it defeats not his grace, it disturbs not his institutions, 
it works no corruption of blood, nor attaints the rights and privi- 
leges of their successors to the end of time; those rights and pri- 
vileges remain as good and valid, as if they had been ordained by 
the twelve Apostles themselves. The argument of the Church in 
her twenty sixth article is conclusive,, and if necessary could be 
fully sustained, by an appeal to the private characters of numbers 
of the Jewish hierarchy. "Although in the visible Church the 
evil be ever mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have 
chief authority in the ministrations of the word and sacraments-, 
yet, forasmuch as they do not the same in their own name, but in 
Christ's, and do minister by his commission and authority, we may 
use their ministry, both in hearing the word of God, and in receiv- 
ing the sacraments. , Neither is the effect of Christ's ordinance 
taken away by their wickedness, nor the grace of God's gifts di- 
minished from such, as by faith, and rightly, do receive the sacra- 
ments ministered unto them, which be effectual, because of Christ's 
institution and promise, although they be ministered by evil men. 
Nevertheless, it appertaineth to the discipline of the Church, that 
inquiry be made of evil ministers, and that they be accused by 
those that have knowledge of their offences : and finally being found 
guilty, by -just judgment, be deposed." 

There is also another objection to our episcopacy, which nothing 
but my desire to be very full and explicit in the present discussion 
could induce me to regard as deserving a reply. For inasmuch as 
the principle for which we contend, necessarily demands an unin- 
terrupted succession of episcopal ordination from the Apostles' 
time to our own ; this succession has been triumphantly affirmed 
to be a mere fable. It is said to have been lost in the revolution cf 
ages, and to have no present existence, save in the vain imagina- 
tion and usurped authority of presumptuous men. 

But to this I answer, that those, whom we are accustomed to 
honour as the fathers of the Church, always preserved with the 
greatest care the catalogues of Bishops in the respective sees from 
She beginning, and that they have been in several instances con- 
tinued down to our own age, as may be seen in the celebrated 
work of the historian Mosheim. And even admitting that our op- 
ponents are in this one particular partially right; admitting contrary 



'?9 

to the testimony of the most learned modern divines, that there are 
defects in those catalogues, that some names are omitted, and 
others erroneously inserted : All this would not disturb our claims 
jn the slightest degree : For what is meant by an uninterrupted 
succession? Not the regular and consecutive induction of bishop 
after bishop in the same city, town or country. For had the con- 
tinent of Asia been sunk in the ocean long centuries since, it would 
not have impaired the validity of the episcopal office in Europe or 
Africa; although Palestine in Asia was the country in which that 
office was first conferred. 

Much less is it requisite, that the incumbent of any diocess should 
have been consecrated by his immediate predecessor. The vacan- 
cy itself is usually created by death, and then, would not the or- 
dination of a bishop of Antioch, by the bishop of Jerusalem, of 
Smyrna, or of Ephesus, be equally legal and binding, as if it had 
been performed in his life time by the hands of the deceased ec- 
clesiastick ? Our friends devoted to the government by presbyters 
will not deny it. A presbyter of their Church, ordained in Eng- 
land, on his removal to this country, can succeed to the ministry 
of the ablest divine they have ever possessed. And so in the case 
of episcopacy ; no matter where the ordaining bishop resides,, all 
whom he ordains, whether bishops, presbyters, or deacons, retain 
their orders unto death, although they should repair to the uttermost 
parts of the earth. 

The senior bishop of our country, for example, was raised to 
the episcopate in London, and his residence on this side of the At- 
lantick has not deprived him of his commission, nor are those upon 
whom he has conferred the same office, the less bishops than they 
would be, provided he could trace up a line of predecessors i» 
Philadelphia to the Apostolick age. All therefore, that is essential 
to an uninterrupted succession, is embraced by the well known 
fact r that bishops have from time immemorial conveyed to others- 
the same ministerial rank and authority, they themselves enjoyed, 
and which Christ and his Apostles introduced into the primitive 
Church, The circumstances of time, place, and residence are al- 
together immaterial. The actual succession has never been lost 
or impaired, because ever since the first institution of the Christian 
ministry, bishops have always existed, and always exercised what 
they considered the exclusive right to ordain and send forth their 
successors and other labourers into the vineyard of Chrjst, 



80 



! have already, Brethren, adverted to the first successful hinow - 
lion upon this divinely established ministry in holy things. It was 
in the beginning of the sixteenth century, after fifteen hundred 
years of the Christian dispensation had rolled away, and the circum j 
stances attending it are entitled to a brief review. The reformation 
commenced by Zuinglius and Luther had extended to Geneva, a 
beautiful town of Switzerland, and shortly afterwards the residence 
of the celebrated Calvin. This great man embraced with eagerness 
the reformed doctrines, and propagated them with all the zeal, in- 
spired by the conviction of their truth, and all the success, usually 
following in the train of piety, learning, and talent. Confining 
himself at first, to what were really the corruptions of papacy, he 
did not immediately introduce the presbyterian form of government, 
He had himself been a presbyter of the Church of Rome, and al- 
though he necessarily retained the same office, notwithstanding his 
change of sentiment upon many subjects, it did not enter into his 
mind, that he was, in virtue of this inferiour rank, authorized to con- 
fer it upon others, by the imposition of his own hands. 

Humanly speaking, it was an unfortunate circumstance^ that at 
this important period, there was not in Germany or Switzerland, in 
France or Italy, a single Roman Catholick bishop, who renounced 
his opinions and joined the ranks of the reformers. Had it been 
otherwise, through his instrumentality, the reformation might have 
proceeded in the most unexceptionable manner. It might, and I 
am free to declare that it would. Calvin was not then in favour of 
a government by presbyters. He advocated no such change. He 
knew that episcopacy was of divine origin. He was so far from de- 
nouncing it as a corruption, that he would gladly have received 
and acted upon it, in the final settlement of the Church at Geneva, 

I am free to declare all this, because he has left it upon record^ 
These are his words, "If they would give us such a hierarchy, in 
which the bishops have such a pre-eminence, as that they do not re- 
fuse to be subject to Christ, and to depend upon him, as their only 
head, and refer all to him; then I will confess, that they are wor- 
thy of all anathemas, if any such shall be found, who will not rev- 
erence it, and submit themselves to it with the utmost obedience.''* 
Can any language be more forcible or determinate? He is most 
anxious for bishops of the reformed religion, — " If they will give us 
such a hierarchy/" He declares of those, who would dare to oppose 



81 



their pre-eminence in the Church, — " They are worthy of all 
anathemas. " 

For my own part, Brethren, strong episcopalian as I am, let me 
assure you, that I could not feel myself justified in using this last 
expression ; I could not find it in my heart to apply it to our pre- 
sent dissenting brethren, although Calvin, contemplating the very- 
circumstances, in which they are now placed, did not hesitate to 
adopt it. And that this was the result of his sober conviction, unin- 
fluenced by passion or prejudice, appears from the following testimo- 
ny of Dr. Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, and a warm advocate 
of the great reformer's peculiar doctrinal views ; " Perusing some 
papers of our predecessor Matthew Parker, we find that John Cal- 
vin, and others of the protectant Churches of Germany and else- 
where, would have had episcopacy, if permitted. And whereas John 
Calvin had sent a letter in King Edward the sixth's reign, to have 
conferred with the clergy of England about some things to this ef- 
fect, two (popish) bishops, viz : Gardiner and Bonner, intercepted 
the same; whereby Mr. Calvin's offerture perished. And he re- 
ceived an answer, as if it had been from the reformed divines of 
those times; wherein they checked him, and slighted his proposals. 
From which time John Calvin and the Church of England were at 
variance in several points ; which otherwise, through God's mercy, 
had been qualified, if those papers of his proposals had been discov- 
ered unto the Queen's majesty during John Calvin's life. But be- 
ing not discovered until, or about the sixth year of her majesty's 
reign, her majesty much lamented they were not found sooner: 
which she expressed before her council at the same time, in the pre- 
sence of her great friends, Sir Henry Sidney, and Sir William 
Cecil." 

So true it is therefore, from these authorities, which might be 
easily enlarged, both from his own works and those of his followers; 
so true it is, that this eminent divine was fully persuaded of the 
Apostolick claims of episcopacy, and that he earnestly desired to 
reform the Church under its auspices. But bishops were not to be 
obtained, and perceiving the importance of a settled ministry, he 
reluctantly availed himself of presbyterian ordination, and for a 

■ ong time justified his departure from the old paths on the ground 

■ >i necessity alone. 

J, 



And what was the opinion of Luther, even more renowned than 
Calvin? Speaking of the Romish bishops, and of the duty of obey- 
ing them, in the event of their acceding to the principles of the re- 
formation, he says, " We would acknowledge them as our fathers, 
and willingly obey their authority, which we find supported by the 
word of God." 

What was the opinion of Melancthon, universally admired among 
the reformers for the excellency of his life, and the extent of his 
erudition? In his apology for the celebrated Augsburg confession, 
among many similar passages, this is particularly striking, "I would 
to God it lay in me to restore the government of bishops. For I see 
what manner of Church we shall have, the ecclesiastical polity be- 
ing dissolved. I do see that hereafter will grow up a greater 
tyranny in the Church than there ever Was before." And never. 
Brethren, was the prophecy of uninspired man more exactly fulfill - 
ed. No wonder that its author elsewhere demands, " By what right 
or law may we dissolve the ecclesiastical polity, if the bishops will 
grant to us that which in reason they ought to grant? And if it 
were lawful for us to do so, yet surely it is not expedient. Luther 
was ever of this opinion." Melancthon indeed employs yet more 
forcible expressions in a letter addressed to Luther in the year fif- 
teen hundred and thirty. " Zuingle" he tells him, " has sent hither, 
in print, his confession of faith. You would say neither more nor 
less, than that he is not in his senses. At one stroke he would 
abolish all ceremonies, and he would have no bishops." 

What was the opinion of Beza, the learned friend of Calvin, his 
colleague and successor at Geneva ? " In my writings touching 
Church government, I ever impugned the Romish hierarchy, but 
never intended to touch or impugn the ecclesiastical polity of the 
Church of England." u If there are any who reject the whole order 
of episcopacy, God forbid that any man of a sound mind should 
assent to the madness of such men." 

What was the opinion of Martin Bucer, another highly distin- 
guished reformer? "By the perpetual observation of all Churches 
even from the Apostles 1 times, we see, that it seemed good to the 
Holy Ghost, that among presbyters, to whom the procuration of 
Churches was chiefly committed, there should be one that should 
have the cafe or charge of divers Churches, and the w r HOLE minis 
try committed to him; and by reason of that charge, he was above 



ike rest; and therefore, the name of bishop was attributed peculiar- 
ly to those chief rulers." 

Finally, what was the opinion expressed in the articles drawn up 
by the protestant delegates to the diet at Worms, held in fifteen 
hundred and twenty one, by command of the Emperor Charles the 
fifth, and at which Luther himself was present, confuting all his 
popish adversaries? « Our learned men have expressly yielded 
ordination to bishops, if there may be a reformation." 

Is it possible, Brethren, to require more favourable testimony than 
this, in behalf of episcopacy, from the very men, who were the 
founders of a presbyterian ministry, and who only sought to vindi- 
cate its adoption upon the plea of necessity ? It is sufficient for me. 
I ask for no greater concessions from those, who still adhere to the 
schism, so deeply and so justly regretted by its authors. I will do 
honour to the candour and integrity of those early reformers; al- 
though I am by no means satisfied with the propriety of their 
course; in other words, ] cannot recognize the doctrine of necessity. 

I will explain myself, by supposing that a body of Christians 
without a minister were to be cast upon some desert coast or unin- 
habited island, and deprived of all intercourse with their brethren 
of the same faith. In order to enjoy the sacraments of the gospel, 
would they be justified in selecting one of their number to adminis- 
ter them, when the Apostle expressly says, " No man taketl; this 
honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron. 
So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest?" I 
know of no case where the necessitjr could be greater, But recol- 
lect, that in the course of divine providence, they were placed in 
this peculiar exigency, and why should they not humbly submit to 
that providence, and by no act of their own interfere with the pre- 
vious counsels of his word? lean perceive no good reason for 
another course, and am convinced, that upon refraining from k, the 
disabilities under which they providentially laboured, would never 
be arrayed against them ; would constitute no cause for their final 
exclusion from the kingdom of heaven. But, as " in every nation,, 
he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with 
him;" so in the case of these exiled Christians, would the Supreme 
Governour of the universe be more pleased with a reverent submis- 
sion to his ordering of the destinies of men, than with the arbitrary 
assumption on their part of the ministerial office^ 



This train of reasoning is even more applicable to the first re- 
formers. They should have reposed more confidence in God, and 
less in human expedients. They should have permitted their sup- 
posed necessity to have been tried by the test of time, and doubtless 
he, who overrules all things for the best, would have relieved them 
from their embarrassment, without their having recourse to that 
fatal schism, which has terminated in so many heretical doctrines 
and sects. 

But even admitting, that the plea of necessity was good at the 
dawn of the reformation, it cannot be maintained at the presen^ 
day, when a government by protestant bishops is accessible to all * 
when the seceders from primitive order can return into the bosom 
of the Apostolick Church, and thus compose the divisions and 
heart-burnings, so injurious to the extended triumphs of the cross. 
We have no Cardinal Richelieu with us to deny the episcopal office 
to any sect, as he once did to the petitioning protestants of France, 
telling them, " If you had that order, you would look too like a 
Church.'" But protestant episcopacy is now firmly established, and 
the reformed Churches, wherever situated, can easily avail them- 
selves of its divine sanctions. That they do not, is their own fault, 
as much as it is the fault of the Quakers, that they have no minis- 
try and no sacraments. 

And here I am compelled by a sense of duty to speak of a separa- 
tion from the original Church of a somewhat different character, 
although the difference is evidently nominal, rather than real. We 
'have amongst us a denomination, respectable for their numbers, 
and distinguished for the warm fervour of their religion, who, while 
they reject in terms the ministry of presbyters, do but conform 
in terms to that of bishops. I need not name them. They trace up 
their history to the year seventeen hundred and twenty nine, and 
had their origin in the partial secession of a pious and talented pres- 
byter of the Church of England, from the pale of her communion. I 
revere the memory of that good man, although I cannot but think 
him to have been egregiously mistaken in the course, he deemed 
it advisable to pursue. In many respects, he was truly a burning 
and a shining light. Upon most doctrinal and practical subjects, 
he preached wisely and well. What his precise views were upon 
the Christian ministry, it is now difficult to ascertain. At one 
time, he would seem to have discarded episcopacy, and at another 



S5 



to have retained it. Even in one letter, he says, " That bishops 
and presbyters are the same order, and consequently have the same 
right to ordain ;" and yet he was " determined, as little as possible 
to violate the established order of the national Church to which" he 
"belonged;" and then he speaks of the English bishops as having 
" a legal jurisdiction," which appears to imply the right of the civil 
government to mould the Christian Church and its ministry, agree- 
ably to its convictions of the prevailing necessity or expediency. 

But whatever may have been his actual meaning, or whatever 
opinions he may afterwards have embraced, it is certain, that he 
deprecated an entire separation from the Church of 1ms fathers, that 
he died in her communion, that he never ordained a permanent body 
of bishops, presbyters, and deacons for the spiritual benefit of his 
English followers, and that they have religiously adhered to his 
principles and practice. 

In relation to his disciples in North America, he however thought 
himself justified in appointing two gentlemen, "joint superinten- 
dents" over them. To one of these, he gave, preceded by a suita- 
ble preamble, this testimony under his hand and seal. "I have 
this day set apart as a superintendent, by the imposition of my 
hands and prayers, (being assisted by other ordained ministers,) 
Thomas Coke, doctor of civil law, a presbyter of the Church of Eng- 
land, and a man whom I judge to be well qualified for that great 
work. And I do hereby recommend him to all whom it may con- 
cern, as a fit person to preside over the flock of Christ." But if by 
this imposition of hands any thing more was intended, than the 
blessing of a good old man upon his fellow labourer in the ministry, 
or if the word superintendent was designed to be used assynoni- 
mous with bishop; then are we called upon to believe in the strange 
anomaly, that one presbyter, as Mr. Wesley styles himself in the 
instrument, can advance another to a higher order in the priesthood 
than he himself possessed ; then is the established order of things 
completely reversed, and inferiours in office are rendered capable of 
creating and commissioning superiours. 

But the truth is, no such power was claimed and no such promo- 
tion was intended. Soon after the ceremony had been performed, 
Dr. Coke left England, and arriving in America forthwith laid his 
hands upon Mr. Asbury, who was to be united with him in the pro- 
posed superintendence. For some time, they contented themselves 



86 



wkh their original title; but at length, sensible perhaps of its ami- 
biguous character, they concluded upon a change, and announced 
themselves to the publick, in an address to the father of his coun- 
try, as " bishops of the methodist episcopal Church. 1 " 

With what propriety, let the benevolent founder of the sect, him- 
self attest. In a letter to Mr. Asbury, he thus expostulates with 
him and his colleague, " In one point, my dear brother, I am a little 
afraid both the Doctor and you differ from me. I study to be little, 
you study to be great ; I creep, you strut along, 1 found a school, 
you a college. Nay, and call it after your own names ! O beware ! 
Do not' seek to be something! Let me be nothing, and Christ be all 
in all. One instance of this your greatness, has given me great 
concern. How can you, how dare you suffer yourself to be called 
a bishop 1 I shudder, I start at the very thought. Men may call 
me a knave, or a fool,' a rascal, a scoundrel, and I am content; but 
they shall never, by my consent, call me a bishop! For my sake, 
for God's sake, for Christ's sake, put a full end to this ! Let the 
presbyterians do what they please, but let the methodists know 
their calling better." 

And now, Brethren, after the recital of language, alike per- 
spicuous and emphatick, I ask you, if it can be seriously believed, 
that its reverend author ever imagined himself authorized, or that 
he ever designed, to consecrate any man to the episcopal office and 
dignity? It is impossible. Or, if it be possible, it is at least equal- 
ly rational to believe that black is white, and white black. There 
is indeed a mystery hanging over this business which a divine of 
the same Church has recently attempted to unfold. But my limits, 
as well as my inclinations, forbid me to be more explicit, 

It is however necessary to advert to one other circumstance of 
an extraordinary character. Dr. Coke came to this country as 
superintendent in seventeen hundred and eighty four; but, after 
having exercised the power of ordination, for about six years, he 
appears to have become extremely dissatisfied with himself, and 
to have been fully convinced of the invalidity of his supposed 
episcopacy. In this state of mind, he wrote to Bishop White of 
our Church, proposing a reunion of their respective Churches, and 
expressing this opinion of the ministers already ordained by Mr. 
Asbury and himself; "I do not think, that the generality of them, 
perhaps none of them would refuse to submit to a reordixatjon." 



§1 



In a subsequent interview with that distinguished and now venera- 
ble prelate, " there was also suggested by him a propriety, but not 
a condition made, of admitting to the episcopacy, himself and the 
gentleman associated with him in the superintendence of the 
methodist societies." The projected union was not however effect- 
ed, but to show you, that he was still aware of the defect in his as- 
sumed official rank, about eight years afterwards, he made a written 
application to the bishop of London to ordain a given number of 
travelling preachers in England, for the purpose of administering 
the sacraments to the people of their connexion. 

All these documents I have in my possession, in a printed form, 
and what do they prove ? Most clearly and incontrovertibly, that 
the Church, of which I am speaking, has no such episcopacy as is 
considered by us, or was considered by its founder and first super- 
intendent, to be authorized and genuine. Of the former, in ad- 
dition to his own letter, disclaiming in such nervous language the 
title of a bishop; Dr. Coke remarks, "He did indeed solemnly in- 
vest me, as far as he had a right to do, with episcopal authori- 
ty ;" but mark the consequences, " he went farther, I am sure, than 
he would have gone if he had foreseen some events which followed, 
And this I am certain of, that he is now sorry for the separation." 
Of the writer's own sentiments, enough has been already submitted 
to convince you, that he placed no confidence whatever in his per- 
sonal pretensions to the office he had exercised. Never did a lawful 
bishop apply for the reordination of those, upon whom he had im- 
posed hands; never could a lawful bishop ask to be consecrated 
anew. Yet this was the course he felt himself constrained to adopt, 
and such is the confessedly imperfect fountain of authority, from 
which is derived the ministry of the methodist Church. Presbyte- 
rian ordination, it undoubtedly has; but episcopal, it has not. 

And believe me, Brethren, I regret the circumstance. It is no 
gratification to me, that its episcopacy is manifestly spurious; nor 
do I take any pleasure in stating these things, except as matters of 
fact, open to the inspection of all, and the legitimate subjects of 
fair, dispassionate inquiry. In this, we are tolerated by the laws 
of the land, and God forbid, that it should be otherwise; God for- 
bid, that we should not speak the truth upon a concern so grave 
and solemn, either from an apprehension of the consequences, or 
Realise the truth may £ive offence, I have learnt a very different 



lesson of our Saviour Christ, when speaking " to those Jews which 
believed on him," he said, " If ye continue in my word, then are 
ye my disciples indeed: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth 
shall make you free." 

I have learnt indeed that " Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved 
of God," « by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by 
him," never hesitated on all suitable occasions to discourse freely 
and unreservedly upon all the errours, whether of faith or practice, 
by which his hearers were liable to be seduced, and I breathe no 
wish for higher authority to exculpate me for presenting the fullest 
information upon the subject, I have undertaken to discuss. Abuse 
is one thing, but argument is another. Mis-statements are to be 
severely reprehended, but important facts are worthy of all accep- 
tation. To pretend, that they are sometimes of such a nature, that 
they cannot be conveyed in the spirit of meekness and humility, 
of charity and brotherly kindness, is altogether idle and extrava- 
gant. Can you not reprove the vices of the sinner, without hating 
his person? Can you not denounce an heretical doctrine, without 
inveighing against the heresiarch, who maintains it? Then are 
there no real graces of Christianity to soften the heart, to ani- 
mate the soul, and give utterance to the lips, which should keep 
knowledge. 

For myself, I will yield to none, in the tolerant feelings I delight 
to indulge. Towards the wise and good of all denominations, my 
bosom expands with the liveliest fraternal affection and sympathy, 
I rejoice in the well founded belief, that they are Christians, such 
Christians as adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour upon earthy 
and as will hereafter enjoy his blissful presence in heaven. If it 
were not so, my religion would be a poor, vain, imaginary things 
the scorn of angels, the sport of demons, the precursor of eternal 
wo. Whereas I can with truth give the right hand of fellowship to 
all the saints of the Most High God, let their scriptural views upon 
some points be ever so variant, and their ministry and worship ever 
so adverse to my conceptions of the primitive Church, and the 
beauty of its holiness. I can pray for them, and breathe with 
them the same prayer to heaven. lean sit down with them before 
the same table of the Lord, and call him to remembrance with 
thankfulness, as the blessed Author of our common salvation. I can 
tli is day, with the utmost cordiality, minister to them the emblem- 



89 

atick flesh and blood of our redemption. Through life I can make 
allowance for their imperfections, as I wish them to make allowance 
for mine. I can give honour, where honour; and praise, where 
praise is due. And when my last hour is come, I am sure, that it 
will prove no diminution of my happiness, to be conscious, that I 
can only hope to enter the mansions of glory, in company with 
myriads on myriads of my fellow Christians of a different per- 
suasion, over whom will be pronounced the approving sentence, 
"Well done ye good and faithful servants — enter ye into the joy 
of your Lord." 

Nevertheless, I must, while here below, clothed with the gar- 
ments of mortality ; I must contend, most earnestly contend for 
the faith of Christ. It matters not to me, to what it relates, wheth- 
er to internal graces or to external order, It is all holy, it is all 
divine, and it is all imperative, You have no right to say of one 
gospel truth, that it is immaterial ; or of one gospel institution, that 
it is either indifferent or superfluous ; that it may be acceded to or 
resisted at pleasure. 

Hence I can never reconcile it to my conscience to be so tender 
of the mere opinions of men, as to lay my hand upon my mouth, 
and my mouth in the dust, rather than controvert a favourite pre- 
judice, or expose myself to an injurious reproach. But while I 
live, I will endeavour, through good report and through evil report, 
to serve the Lord with fear, and of him only will I be afraid. While 
I live, although it will be impossible to renounce, or even to modify 
the truths this day delivered, I will not be inflamed by the fires of a 
persecuting spirit; I will not suffer this fiend of hell to rankle in 
my heart ; I will not cease to remember, that " now abideth faith, 
hope, charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity." 
And still, in defence of the true Church, the true Zion and Jerusa- 
lem, so often and so unjustly assailed, will I neither hold my peace 
nor rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness^ and 
*he salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii, Amen. 



M 



90 



SERMON Villi ' 

ISAIAH lxiL 1. 

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness;, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

WITH the preceding discourses has terminated all, that 
I am at present disposed to urge in behalf of the divine right 
of an episcopal government and ministry. When a few more sub- 
jects, intimately connected with the prosperity of our Zion, shall 
have passed in review before us ; it will be proper to enforce the 
general argument, and urge the entire claims of the Church, in some 
closing remarks, designed to inculcate the advantages of unity, and 
to expose the evils of schism. 

So far, I have borne a decided, though I trust and believe, an un- 
exceptionable testimony against the great body of non-episcopali- 
ans, wherever located and into whatever sects divided. My present 
object will be limited to those, who entertain a widely different 
opinion from us and all other Christians, upon the much contro- 
verted subject of bapt ism. 

Not however, that I propose to enter largely upon its discussion . 
It would occupy too much time. It would interfere with the more 
prominent design of this investigation, and be liable to divert the 
attention of the hearer from what I cannot but consider a far more 
interesting and important inquiry. It is, nevertheless, very obvious, 
that one, among many causes of the separation of our fellow Chris- 
tians from the Church universal, is to be traced to the mode in which 
we administer the sacrament of baptism, and also to the principle 
involved by its celebration in the case of infants. Can this cause 
in either particular be fairly and justly obviated? 

As to the mode: In the absence of every thing approaching to a 
positive, verbal command, our judgment must necessarily be guided 
by such inferences as may be reasonably drawn from the inspired 



volume. Its examples are always made to vary in their character, 
precisely as one disputant contends for sprinkling, and another for 
immersion. They have not, for a length of time, and in all proba- 
bility for long ages hence, they will not control the universal 
suffrage in favour of one common interpretation. 

I shall therefore pass them by. I will not accompany our bles- 
sed Saviour to the stream of Jordan : For whether the rite were 
there performed by sprinkling, by affusion, or by immersion ; like 
the circumcision, which he previously endured, it would scarcely 
form an unalterable precedent for us, inasmuch as it was not Chris- 
tian baptism ; inasmuch as certain disciples at Ephesus, who had 
before submitted unto John's baptism, were at the instance of Paul 
rebaptized in the name of the J^ord Je^us. I will not undertake 
critically to expound the scriptures, ^hich speak of the man of 
^Ethiopia, of Lydia, or of the jailer at Philippi, nor will I venture 
to display a profusion of learning o^ the original Greek and He- 
brew words, whether they actually mjsa\to sprinkle, to pour upon, 
or to immerse. These things have been argued pro and con a hun- 
dred and a thousand times, and still th^ question remains debatable 
and debated, as it was, when first broached by our modern ana- 
baptists. ; 

I rather prefer to inquire: Is the mode in any sense material? 
If it had been divinely prescribed, or, which is equivalent, if it had 
been unquestionably the uniform practice of the Apostles to bap- 
tize in a particular manner, I would never answer in the negative. 
But under existing circumstances, when conjecture must necessa- 
rily supply the place of an undoubted record : Is the mode in any 
sense material? Is the inward and spiritual grace betokened by 
external baptism, in the slightest degree affected by the quantity of 
water used in its celebration ? 

Let us examine the matter analogically. There is but one other 
sacrament appointed in the scriptures of the new testament, and 
can you tell me the size of the loaf broken by our adorable Saviour 
at its institution ? Can you give me the exact weight of the several 4, 
fragments of that loaf distributed by him to his disciples ? No, you 
can do no such thing. You cannot even tell me the particular spe- 
cies of corn of which it was composed. Nor of the wine; you can- 
not resolve me, what kind was employed, or what amount was re- 
ceived. Bread and wine were indeed consumed, but all these 



m 



minute details are suppressed. The)* appear to have been con* 
sidered beneath the dignity of so solemn and sacred a transaction. 
In the eyes of our Saviour Christ, quality and quantity possessed 
no inherent value. His thoughts preferred to rest upon the memo- 
rable event, mere physical substances were proposed to symbolize ; 
upon his precious death and sacrifice on the cross for our redemp- 
tion. No matter therefore, what may be the kind or what the 
measure of the bread and wine, of which Ave partake in the euchar- 
ist ; there is as much virtue in them, provided they are' received in 
the spirit of faith accompanied by thanksgiving, provided they do 
truly represent unto us the body and blood of our redemption ,< 
there is as much virtue in them, as if they were the precise coun- 
terpart of the materials originally blessed and bestowed by Christ. 

And thus, if there be any safety, any propriety in reasoning 
from a strongly marked and unequivocal analogy, thus it is with 
holy baptism. There is no express command, as in the case of 
Naaman the S) r rian leper, and the waters of our country are as 
good as the waters of Jordan. We may be, either immersed in or 
sprinkled by them, and if the sacrament be rightly received, our 
polluted heart and flesh will become clean; we shall resume the 
heart and the flesh of a little child. To deny it, would be an ex- 
cess of that very formality, of which the Church is so often and 
pertinaciously, though so wrongfully accused. It would cause the 
shadow to outvie the substance; the figure of the seal, the wax 
upon which it is impressed; and consequently our friends of the 
baptist denomination very properly maintain their opinion on the 
ground of Apostolick usage and divine authority alojie. And 
certainly, if that ground were tenable, for one, I would yield to it 
the homage of a willing mind. I would renounce all my present 
sentiments, in its favour, lest haply I should be found to fight eyen 
against God. 

But permit me, Brethren, to remind you of a remarkable passage 
of the scriptures, which powerfully strengthens my convictions of 
their errour. I allude to that wonderful act of condescension on 
the part of our gracious Lord, when "he poured water into a basin 
and began to wash the disciples* feet, and to wipe them with the 
towel wherewith he was girded. " The menial character of. the 
office smote the heart of Peter, and warmly remonstrating against 
it, he declared, " Thou shalt never wash my feet, Jesus answered 



him, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter 
saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my 
head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not, save to 
wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean." You 
discover therefore, Brethren, the emblematick nature of these words, 
and their spiritual application. Literally we know, they cannot 
be true. We know that the mere w ashing of the feet cannot cleanse 
the whole surface of the body, But still as an emblem of internal 
purity, it was pronounced, by the highest authority, to be equally 
significant with a more copious ablution. The hands and the head 
of Peter were not washed, and yet he was " clean every whit." 

And what is external baptism, but an emblem, the outward and 
visible sign and seal of an inward and spiritual grace ?" You must be 
sensible, that it amounts to nothing more, and that I have here pre- 
sented you with a perfect analogy. You have only to substitute 
Christian for Jew, with the antitype for the type, and Paul himself 
will tell you, " He is not a Christian which is one outwardly ; neither 
is that baptism which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Christian 
which is one inwardly; and baptism is that of the heart, in the 
spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." 
Yes, Brethren, in the spirit and not in the letter. Outward circum- 
cision itself was partial, while the whole heart was sanctified and 
cleansed. Outward baptism may be performed by the sprinkling 
or the pouring of water upon the face, and still this partial w wash- 
ing of regeneration" may be as effectually accompanied by " the 
renewing of the Holy Ghost," as if the whole body were momenta- 
rily buried by immersion. That such was the opinion of the 
primitive Christians is obvious from their constant practice in all 
cases of emergency, particularly in that of clinicks or those who 
by sickness were confined to their beds. 

Recollect also that the Apostles invariably baptised their hearers 
immediately after their conversion, and that consequently upon 
every profession of a true and lively faith, we are solemnly bound 
to imitate their example, and by no means delay the applicant for 
the mystical washing away of sin. But the preacher of the Gospel 
has converted a caravan amid the burning deserts of Africa, or a 
polar tribe with whom for nearly half the year, the rivers are con- 
gealed to ice. Can any man then forbid a cup of water, that these 
should not be baptized? Must the rite be delayed, until those de- 



94 



serls are passed, and until a summer's sun shall have unlocked the 
frozen regions of the north ? Surely it would not comport with its 
speedy celebration by the Apostles of Christ. The baptist mission- 
ary would be obliged to sprinkle, or he would set more value upon 
the quantity of water, than he would upon that loss of time, for 
which he has no authority in the sacred volume. 

Nor is this the worst feature attending his principles and practice. 
For it might be contended, that as these cases will rarely occur, 
so, of the alternatives presented to his choice, it would be better to 
refuse sprinkling and incur the danger of delay. I will then pre- 
sent him with an unbaptized individual, and there are many such, 
upon his dying bed. To immerse him is beyond the moral power 
of man. And if he ardently solicits, if he pathetically pleads to 
be admitted into the mystical body of Christ, by sprinkling or affu- 
sion ; must the baptist resist all his importunities, and deny him his 
heart's desire? The Apostles were directed to " teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost; Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
I have commanded you," And is not baptism here expressly ex- 
acted? Are there any exceptions to its observance? Do you find 
that the twelve in executing their commission, either excused or 
repulsed any of the mortally sick and diseased? The respective 
answers are obvious. Baptism was emphatically required. No 
exceptions are made. It is not said, that the twelve excused or re- 
pulsed a single applicant. But were there not many sick in those 
days? Is not sickness still found to be among the best schoolmas- 
ters to bring us to Christ 1 

How then did the Apostles act? Did they, under these affecting 
circumstances, baptize or not? In the absence of all preconceived 
opinions and prejudices, their course can scarcely be doubted. For 
the command is imperative ; no particular mode is prescribed ; and 
the word, baptizo, is indiscriminately and properly rendered to 
sprinkle, to pour upon, and to immerse 

How then did they perform the ceremony? We read of some 
that were carried to Jesus on their beds and that he healed them. 
But show me a similar instance of the sick and dying being trans 
ported to the water side, and there plunged beneath the waters. 
The record is not to be found; the instance never occurred; and 
hence, combined with tfce preceding views, I conclude that this 



y5 



solemn ordinance was administered at the house and bed of the 
invalid, and that he was not refused its sacramental virtue, when 
from among the strong and vigorous there were daily added to the 
Church of such as should be saved. Hence whenever a baptist divine 
is called upon to confer the initiatory sacrament of the Gospel upon 
the expiring sufferer, incapable of being immersed, I ask, whether 
it is better to obey the command of Christ, or rigidly to adhere to 
what must be considered a mere question of form, since ninety^ 
nine hundredths of the Christian world oppose his peculiar inter- 
pretation of the scriptures? I reply that if he does err, it is wiser 
to err on the safer side ; wiser not to disobey a positive command to 
baptize, than to be afraid of falling into a ceremonial errour. While 
I give him all credit for the purity of his motives, and the sincerity 
of his belief, I cannot but desire him seriously to reflect, that to re- 
fuse an anxious supplicant and endeavour to quiet his apprehen- 
sions upon a modal plea, is scarcely compatible with such passages 
as this, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." If 
1 am told as an excuse, that it is afterwards said, "but he that be- 
lieveth not shall be damned ;" Is not the omitted clause, " and is 
not baptized," substantially supplied in the gospel according to St, 
John? "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a 
man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God." " Charity hopeth all things, believeth all things." 
I hope and believe, that many of the unbaptized of Christian, as 
well as of heathen countries, will be saved. But charity doth not 
know, neither do I know. Upon an attentive perusal of the scrip- 
tures, the quantity of water is indeed with me a matter of perfect 
indifference. According to the rubrick and practice of the Church 5 
I will not hesitate to employ every customary mode of baptism, and 
conscientiously maintain the validity of either and all. The Apos- 
tles laid their two hands upon such as were ordained to be -the min- 
isters of Christ, but should one of their successors in office by the 
providence of God be deprived of an arm, it would not in my esti- 
mation, in the slightest degree vitiate his subsequent ordinations. 

Proceeding, therefore, in this brief survey, I now arrive at that 
other cause of separation from the Church, which is produced by 
our steadfast adherence to the practice of infant baptism. And 
here also I shall be compelled to waive a consideration of the most 



96 



common arguments, which have been marshalled for Centuries ok 
either side of the question. That, derived from the commission to 
baptize all nations, is in my judgment perfectly sound and unan- 
swerable, inasmuch as infants constitute a large proportion of every 
nation. The same may be said of the proof drawn from the analo- 
gy subsisting between the Jewish and Christian Churches, and 
which would be in part destroyed^ provided infants were not admit- 
ted into the latter ; and so of some others familiar to the recollect 
lion of most of you, however conclusive and satisfactory, I do not 
propose to dwell upon them in the abstract, on account of that very 
familiarity. 

But amid the conflicting opinions of numerous interpreters of the 
bible : Are you in doubt about the propriety of dedicating your chil- 
dren to Christ by bringing them to his holy ordinance? Let that 
bible be examined, and tell me, Where do you find any prohibition ? 
The question is indeed frequently reversed, and it is triumphantly 
demanded, Where do you find any command to baptize infants 1 We 
think and believe, that we discover it in the commission already 
referred to ; but as our opponents deny this, I shall not enter upon 
the discussion ; I shall prefer once more to recur to the doctrine of 
analogy, in order to expose the fallacy of their requiring what would 
be universally considered a positive requisition. 

For this purpose, let us advert to the sacrament of the Lord'3 
supper. Throughout the gospels, the acts, and epistles, you can 
descry no such thing as an express injunction entitling women to 
its reception; you can disclose no instance of its being actually ad- 
ministered to them. And yet, our baptist brethren freely admit 
them to this blessed memorial of our Lord's crucifixion and death. 
They cannot consent to indulge in the same kind of scruples, which 
they urge in relation to infants brought forward to receive the other 
sacrament. They do not or will not perceive, that these last are 
comprised in the expression " teach all nations, baptizing them 
but to the word ye, " except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and 
drink his blood, ye have no life in you;" "As often as ye eat this 
bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he 
come f 9 to the word man, " Let a man examine himself, and so let 
him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup;" to these words, they 
can attach a far more extensive signification, and easily reconcile 
themselves to the idea of their embracing the female portion of so- 



07 

<*Iety. All doubts and difficulties are here readily overcome. They 
never ask, with an air of triumph. Where do you obtain direct and 
unquestionable authority for permitting women to partake of the 
holy eucharist? And thus I prove to you the fallacy and inconsis- 
tency of their imposing question pertaining to infant baptism ; thus I 
prove to you, that the form preferred by us, Where do you find any 
prohibition against it? that this form is far more correct, and at the 
same time, strictly conformable to the example, they exhibit in a no 
less important particular. 

And then as to the prohibition itself. Tn vain shall any man 
search the scriptures with the view of producing it. It exists not 
on the sacred page, and that it existed not in the mind of Christ, is 
evident from the circumstance to which I shall now call your atten- 
tion. As the Jews, to whom the gospel was first preached, and by 
some of whom it was joyfully received ; as they had been accustom- 
ed to see their infants enrolled among the members of the Hebrew 
Church, it were no more than reasonable to expect, that they should 
be clearly apprized of the alleged change in relation to the Chris- 
tian, if such a change was divinely authorized. It was thus with 
the innumerable rites and ceremonies, which Paul appositely termed 
" a yoke of bondage." They were explicitly abolished, though not 
the benefits attending them. The absence of the sacrifice of sheep, 
and of oxen, and of the fat of fed beasts was more than compensated 
by the sacrifice of the true paschal Lamb. But if there were any 
benefits accompanying circumcision, and to deny it were impious, 
then if we have nothing answering to it in the Christian economy, 
then are our children less favoured of heaven, than were the chil- 
dren of the Jews, and even of the proselytes to their Church from 
among the surrounding heathen. And all this without one intima- 
tion from God, one such plain declaration as this; Your children 
must arrive at the years of discretion, they must be personally ca- 
pable of believing in Jesus, and of truly repenting them of their 
sins, before they can possibly enjoy through baptism the privileges 
bestowed in the new dispensation of grace and glory. Is it possible 
to believe it? Never, no never can I consent to embrace a doctrine 
so adverse to the interests of our little ones, and therefore so much 
at variance with the benevolent character of their Father in heaven. 
While its tendency is, in this important particular, to exalt the Jew- 
ish above the Christian Church, I can never receive it upon the 



98 



mere ground of inference, I must have something more explicit to 
prevent me from applying Water to infant brows, in the name of the 
Father, and of the Son,- and of the Holy Ghost. It would ill accord 
with the affectionate manner of our Saviour, when he says, " Suffer 
the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such 
is the kingdom of God." It would contradict the testimony of 
Peter in the first Apostolick sermon; "Repent, and be baptized every 
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, 
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is 
unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even 
as many as the Lord our God shall call." 

And strongly, Brethren y am I fortified in these opinions by another 
circumstance to which your attention must be drawn. How ex 
tremely devoted were the Jews to the long cherished rites, ceremo^ 
nies$ and doctrines of their religion. How tenaciously did they 
regard them,, and with what impatience did they look upon the 
smallest innovation proposed by our Saviour and his Apostles, 
Sanguinary as was the initiatory rite of their ancient Church, they 
yet leaned to it with the utmost bigotry of attachment, after they 
had received the Christian name, They could not endure the 
presence of a converted Gentile. But " when Peter was come up to 
Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him^ 
saying, Thou wentest in to men uneircumcised, and didst eat with 
them." And afterwards at Antioch, " certain men, which came 
down from Judea, taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be cir~ 
cumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved." Even 
two of the Apostles found it difficult Co devest themselves of their 
early prejudices upon the subject, as we may learn from this narra- 
tive of Paul. " When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him 
to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain 
came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles ; but when they were 
come, he withdrew, and separated himself, fearing them which were 
of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise, with 
him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their 
dissimulation." 

You may learn therefore, from these passages, and many more 
might be adduced, you may learn how wonderfully reluctant the 
Christianized Jews were to surrender one of the least prepossessing 
feature of their exploded economy. How they contended with the 



99 

Apostles for admitting the Gentiles to the privileges of the Gospel 
in their uncircumcised state, and how, under this supposed priva- 
tion, they denied the possibility of their being saved. And now I 
demand, Is it credible, that they who could thus argue and thus 
resolutely contend in favour of continuing a mere external ceremo= 
ny; Is it credible, that they should entirely overlook the circum= 
stance of their children being denied an entrance into the Christian 
Church by any ceremony whatever, which must have been the case, 
if infant baptism did not supply the place of circumcision? 

Surely, Brethren, it is not natural ; it corresponds not with the 
tender and affectionate feelings of parents towards their offspring,* 
it militates extremely with the well known history of a remarkably 
rebellious and gainsaying people. I should much sooner have ex- 
pected to witness, throughout their intercourse with the Apostles, 
the loudest murmurs and complaints against the new order of things. 
In some such language as this, they would have been very apt to 
denounce them and all their adherents; You pretend to meliorate 
our condition, and to take away a yoke, which you tell us neither 
we nor our fathers were able to bear : Why then this dreadful out- 
rage upon our natural sympathies ? Why do you give us a Churehj 
which is to deprive us of our beloved children; which refuses to 
embrace them in its sheltering arms; which would rend asunder the 
ties so long and so happily preserved in our own inestimable Zion ? 
It is no good thing that we hear of you; we cannot away with it; 
we reject it with the utmost scorn and indignation ; we are free to 
declare unto you, that we greatly prefer our native altars ; where 
our children are, there we will be • we will live and we will die with 
them. 

Yes, Brethren, something of this kind I should certainly have ex= 
pected from Jewish auditors, especially when the new doctrine 5 
excluding infants from the Church, was first broached, and before 
they could have become familiarized a^id reconciled to it, by the 
persuasive arguments of inspired men. And yet, not one syllable 
of the kind was ever advanced. The opposersof the Gospel, who 
bitterly inveighed against our Saviour for permitting his disciples to 
pluck a few ears of corn upon the sabbath day ; who reviled him for 
healing the sick at this season of sacred rest, never once thought of 
objecting to the Church planted by his Apostles, in consequence of 
^his alleged innovation^ Even they, who joined it, and were eode= 



100 



sirous of incorporating with it their favourite circumcision, never 
protested against so extraordinary a departure from the old paths. 
Their children are not so much as alluded to; their pretended disa- 
bility does not extract so much as one tear from parental eyes, nor 
one exclamation of surprise or remonstrance from parental lips. 
About little things they were loud and vehement in their opposition ; 
but about this so infinitely exceeding them in interest and impor- 
tance, so deeply calculated to wound the tenderest sensibilities of 
their hearts, about this they were silent and unconcerned as the 
dead in their graves : Not only fathers, but mothers. "In Rama, 
was there" no " voice heard," no " lamentation, and weeping, and 
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and" refusing to 
" be comforted, because they" were exiled from the pale of the ne\4 
Jerusalem. 

Wonderful silence! Admirable stoicism! How are we to account 
for their existence ? How are we to reconcile such glaring incon- 
sistency ? Simply by endeavouring to remove the veil from the eyes 
of the blind, and confidently asserting that there was no cause for 
excitement, no room for animadversion, no disfranchising decree 
pronounced against the children of Christians. Into the bosom of 
the Church, they could be admitted by baptism, as their predeces- 
sors had been previously admitted by circumcision. Had it been 
otherwise, all Judea would have been inflamed with resentment, 
the holy Land would have glowed with indignation. But the un- 
broken silence of scribes and pharisees, of hypocrites and sinners, 
of believers and unbelievers, of Apostles and disciples; this very 
silence furnishes a testimony in behalf of infant baptism, which 
the collected wisdom and ingenuity of its adversaries can never 
overturn. 

With this negative, though conclusive evidence, the records of anti- 
quity uniformly agree. Not one primitive writer denies the usage to 
be of Apostolick origin. Whoever traces it up to its source gives to it 
the sanction of this inspired authority. Justin Martyr of the second 
century, the celebrated author of An Apology for the Christians^ 
speaking of certain believers, observes, " a part of these were sixty 
or seventy years old, who were made disciples to Christ from their 
infancy ;" and I know of no other process but baptism, by which in- 
fants could have been made disciples. 

Irenseus, a contemporary already mentioned, asserts, that "Chris* 



101 



came to save all persons, who by him are born again unto God ; In- 
fants and little ones, and children, and youths, and elder persons ;" 
and as our baptist friends will not contend that they were born again 
through faith in Jesus, how can they reconcile with their opinions 
his acknowledged application of this phrase to <£ infants and little 
ones." 

Origen, of the third century, is still more direct ; u Infants are 
baptized for the remission of sins." He also assures^ us, that "the 
Church hath received the tradition from the Apostles, that baptism 
ought to be administered to infants." 

Cyprian, after the lapse of one hundred and fifty years from the 
death of the Apostles, with " sixty six bishops" sitting in coun- 
cil at Carthage, decided, that f 4 the Church had allowed of it, yea 
that children had better right to baptism than elder persons." 

The pious and learned Augustin, of the fourth and fifth centuries, 
declares, "The whole Church practises infant baptism; it was not 
instituted by councils, but was always in use;" and again, "this 
the Church has always maintained." 

Testimony of the same character might be easily multiplied to 
an indefinite extent ; but these extracts are sufficient ; they are cor- 
roborated by the practice of the Syrian Church discovered by Buch- 
anan, and must prove eminently satisfactory, if you reflect, that 
these holy fathers had no slight foundation ki the scriptures to justi- 
fy both the decisive language they employed, and that celebration 
of infant baptism, which they maintained, and of whose existence in 
their own times, they at least are credible witnesses. For when 
our Saviour says, u Suffer the little children to come unto me and 
forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God:" Why should 
we obstruct the only visible avenue to the arms, which once encir- 
cled and blessed them, and thus refuse them that baptism, by which 
alone, they can be united to his mystical body, the Church? When 
he affirms, " Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a 
little child shall in no wise enter therein :" Why should we contra- 
vene his word, and insist that men and women are alone capable of 
that reception ? When he declares, " Whoso shall offend one of 
these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that 
a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned 
in the depth of the sea :" Why should we proclaim them void of the 
only faith, whicl^ our Saviour could have contemplated, the faith of 



102 



believing friends and relatives bringing them in pious charity u> 
his holy baptism? 

The truth is, that our divine Lord perpetually makes our own 
admission, into his glorious Church and kingdom, to depend very 
materially upon our growing resemblance to the innocence and 
simplicity of the infant mind. And I must confess to you, that my 
understanding is not sufficiently acute to perceive the propriety of 
that opposite doctrine and practice, which require of children, that 
they must lose their state of negative innocence, that they must 
grow, up into men and women, and become like them, by being de 
filed with the many pollutions of sin, so as to be able to repent and 
turn to God with works meet for repentance ; which require all this 
of children, before they can enjoy through baptism the privileges 
and benefits of a Church, of which Christ evidently considers them 
the fittest and the purest members. My understanding is not suffi- 
ciently acute for this, and therefore, Brethren, instead of insisting, 
that your infants shall become as you are, before I can consent to 
minister unto them the sacrament of baptism, I prefer, after the 
manner of the faithful and true Witness, to exhort those of you, who 
remain unbaptized, to resemble them ere you venture to seek this 
instituted mode of admission into the visible kingdom of God. 

On the whole j it would appear, that our adherence to the doctrine 
of infant baptism furnishes a no more valid plea for a separate 
Church and communion, than does the manner in which the rite 
itself i: celebrated. The bias, springing from early and deep root- 
ed prejudice, may not indeed permit each individual among us to 
perceive the force and strength of the arguments submitted; but 
even when they are partially obscured by this, or some other con- 
genial cause, it is of no trifling consequence to connect with the 
whole subject the claims, which we maintain from having in om 
possession the authorized ministry of the great Shepherd and Bishop 
of our Souls. 

I remember, that this gracious Being once demanded \ " Whether 
is greater the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?" And hence, 
a similar question strikes me, as extremely apt and cogent ; Wheth- 
er is greater, baptism, or the Church and ministry, which through 
Christ sanctify baptism? I think it extremely apt and cogent, 
because the correctness of the similitude and of the parts, of which 
it is composed, cannot be reasonably denied. Of the only fair and 



103 



true solution, I leave you to judge, merely remarking, that the 
thing conferred can never be greater than the authority by which 
it is conferred. Where then is that authority? To whom has our 
Saviour Christ, by his Apostles, so clearly committed the ministry 
of reconciliation, as to promise, that he will be with them; that 
he will acknowledge all their acts, and sanctify them to the soul's 
health of such^ as rightly receive them? I reply, to the legally- 
ordained ministers of his own Church, and not to those, who ven- 
ture to administer the sacraments, and preach the word in Church- 
es, that were never heard of prior to the era of the reformation i 
who contest the mode and the subjects of baptism, without previ- 
ously vindicating their authority to baptize, in any mode whatever. 
And may Almighty God, of his infinite mercy, give you wisdom 
to discern, and grace to follow and obey from the heart, that form 
of" doctrine, which has been delivered you. May it prove unto you 5 
not only profitable for doctrine ; but for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness, that ye may be perfect, that ye may 
be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And to him, the; 
Father, to the #on and Holy Ghost, three persons and one God ? 
in the Unity of an ever blessed Trinity, shall be ascribed all the 
honour, and glory, and dominion, and praise, world without end. 
Ambn, 



SERMON IX. 

isaiah lxii. L 

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem 1 * sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness- 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii, 

YOU are aware. Brethren, that the defence of the Church, in 
which I am now engaged, is founded upon her close adherence to 
divine institutions. Usages indifferent in themselves have not been 
brought forward in a prominent manner, They must be debated 



104 



and settled on the sole ground of expediency, and be left subject to 
such after changes or modifications, as the sage and judicious may 
consider advisable. But when you approach the sacred volume^ 
no longer may you determine for yourselves, by presuming to an- 
nul what God hath established. No longer may you hesitate to 
put forth your best exertions, in endeavouring to adorn the doctrine 
of God your Saviour in all things. His ordinances are holy. His 
commands are imperative. They must be revered, and they must 
be obeyed. Wherever violated, wherever discarded in favour of 
the " witty inventions" of men, ignorance is the best excuse, the 
only' admissible plea, and even this, in those cases merely, in which 
essentials are still preserved, and the heart is sensibly alive to the 
righteousness, which is of God, by faith. 

And happy ami, in the belief, that this truly benign and merci 
ful Being will not be < severely strict to mark offences : Happy in 
believing, that, " if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted ac- 
cording to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." 
So that if he knows nothing of episcopacy ; nothing of its divine 
authority ; to condemn him, who, under different circumstances, 
would most gladly embrace it, comports not with the pleasing views 
1 am delighted to cherish in relation to the goodness, and benevo- 
lence, and mercy of our Father in heaven. 

It is for the obstinate and refractory, the presumptuous violators 
of his will and Word, that he will hereafter muster all his terrors 
and visit them with his sore displeasure. For them, it will prove 
no slight affair, to have attempted all in their power to rob his 
Church of its glory, his ministers of their authority, and his gos- 
pel of its intended harmonious influence over the hearts of men. 
But, at the great day of account, a rigid inquiry will be instituted ; 
if I may be permitted the expression, a solemn inquest held over 
the mangled body of Christ; When some such interrogations as 
these will be very apt to put down the high look and the proud 
heart of the scorner. Why did ye cast off the Zion of my choice, 
and the spouse of mine anointed? Why did ye cease to "walk 
about Zion and go round about her," to " tell the towers thereof," 
to " mark well her bulwarks" and " consider her palaces, that ye"' 
might "tell it to the generation following?" Why did ye forsake 
her, the true bride of " the fountain of living waters," and in pre- 
ference hew out to yourselves "cisterns, broken cisterns, that'* 



105 



yould " hold no water ?" I gave ye my sabbaths and my sanctua= 
ries, but ye have polluted them by your strifes and contentions; 
my Church, but ye have wasted it with heresy and schism; my 
ministering servants and ambassadors, but ye have lifted up the 
heel against them, and usurped their office^ my gospel and its or- 
dinances, but ye have moulded the one after the imagination of 
your own hearts, and renounced the other in compliance with hu- 
man counsels and worldly prejudices. Yes, Brethren, interroga- 
tions and declarations, such as these, will doubtless probe the dis- 
imbodied spirit of many a wanton schismatick in the day of re- 
compense, and no easy matter will it be found to disarm the arrows 
of the Almighty of their sting, and extenuate numerous flagrant 
departures from the written word. 

In the number of these, I have ever regarded the rejection of the 
holy rite of confirmation, or the laying on of hands upon private 
Christians, as among the most extraordinary and unjustifiable. It 
is indeed a subject little thought of, and consequently little under= 
stood in this western world. Few, perhaps, have ever heard of 
such an institution, or if they have heard, it has been from the 
mouth of the reviler, branding it as one of the many remnants of 
papal superstition, originally devised during the dark ages, and 
surreptitiously brought to light in the hope and expectation of be- 
wildering the intellects, and fettering the consciences of men. 
With what justice, with what sincere reverence for divine and 
heavenly things, I propose to examine, and great will be my dis- 
appointment, if a failure should ensue, in this attempt to establish 
the scriptural foundation of the rite, its repeated celebration by the 
Apostles, and its universal reception in the primitive Church. 

To begin with its scriptural foundation ; I know of but one pas- 
sage where it is specifically spoken of in the abstract, or discon- 
nected with its commemoration. But then so clearly and distinct- 
ly, that he who runs may read and understand. It is by St. Paul 
in the sixth chapter of his epistle to the Hebrews : St. Paul, who 
had previously rebuked certain disciples for their ignorance of 

the first principles of the oracles of God $'? who had accused them 
of becoming "such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat;" 
although it " belongeth to them that are of full age ; w and who, 
from these premises, drew the inference, " Therefore, leaving tne 
principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection^ 

O 



106 



not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead Works, 
and of faith towards God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of lay= 
ing on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eter- 
nal judgment." As if he had said r Let us no longer linger in th4 
vestibule, when we should penetrate the interiour edifice of the 
gospel. Let us no longer be obliged to investigate and master its 
primary truths and fundamental axioms. These should be already 
familiar to our minds, and instead of requiring additional research* 
we had much better evince their practical influence on our lives f 
by relinquishing all doubtful disputations about their efficacy, and 
all subtle inquiries pertaining to their general obligation. As the 
rudiments of our Saviour's doctrine, we cannot fail to embrace 
them ; we might as well renounce him for our teacher, as attempt 
to forego them j we must confide in them, as divinely ordain- 
ed, and unsusceptible of change; so that not laying again their 
foundation, not daring to question their integrity, we must leave 
them as so many undoubted principles indelibly written upon our 
hearts, and happily enabling us to perfect our pursuit of religion,, 
from a full persuasion of their elementary truth. 

With this fair and natural construction of the Apostle's argument, 
I proceed to remark^ that he enumerates the " laying on of hands," 
among the leading articles of the Christian faith. But lest it should 
be thought to refer to ministerial ordination, your attention is in- 
vited to a very plain and radical distinction.. Ordination is a cere- 
mony necessarily limited to such as devote themselves to the work 
of the ministry; it has not the universal application involved by the 
language of Paul : Who addresses himself to the great body of his 
countrymen, and not to the clerical orders; who invites them, with- 
out any discrimination whatever, as believers,, and not as evange- 
lists, to leave the principles of the doctrine of Christ. There ie 
consequently, no reasonable pretence for singling out one article 
from the residue, and confining its operation to any one description 
of men. In this case, it would be, not so much one of the con- 
stituent principles of the gospel, as the prescribed mode of desig- 
nating the authorized teachers of those principles. 

Besides, in the passage before us, it is associated with subjects, 
having the most comprehensive signification. Repentance and 
faith are required of all. Baptism is an ordinance, from which no- 
Christian can rightfully plead exemption. The resurrection of the 



107 



dead and eternal judgment are events in which all mankind will 
hereafter participate. Confirmation or the laying on of hands must 
therefore, by the rule of analogy, be a doctrine of equal obligation 
and extent. For no other reason was it classed with principles, 
constituting the basis of our religion ; for no other reason was it 
enumerated immediately after baptism, but to show its proper p 3 '?ce 
in the order of events. As faith follows repentance, and an eternal 
judgment, the resurrection of the dead ; so does, and should, the 
laying on of hands succeed to the reception of baptism. 

But not to detain you longer with inductions however legitimate, 
let us advert, Brethren, to Apostolick usage, to facts, which have 
ever been considered stubborn things, and that will be found to 
bear me out most triumphantly in this course of reasoning. In the 
eighth chapter of the Acts, it appears that when Philip, one of the 
seven deacons, "went down to the city of Samaria," "preaching 
the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus 
Christ, they were baptized, both men and women." And still, 
something more was deemed essential to the completion of their 
Christian character. Nor is the reason witheld. It was because 
the Holy Ghost " was fallen upon none of them ; only they were 
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus." Hence, " when the Apos- 
tles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the 
word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John : Who, when they 
were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the 
Holy Ghost." And then, continues the inspired writer, "then 
laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy 
Ghost." 

Could any narrative be more satisfactory ? Both men and women 
were the subjects of baptism, and of the subsequent rite. It could 
not, therefore, be the same with ministerial ordination. Is it pos- 
sible for any history, written for our instruction, to be more minute 
and circumstantial, or to exhibit a more practical commentary on 
the sixth of Hebrews? St. Paul, in that ehapter, speaks of six 
distinct principles of the doctrine of Christ, and here were two of 
them publickly administered in the precise order, in which they 
are there arranged ; the baptism of private Christians, by Philip 
the deacon, being almost immediately followed by the laying on of 
the hands of Peter and John, the Apostle? = 



10S 



Nor are we to wonder at the alacrity of their attendance. It was 
(he first attempt to spread the doctrines of the risen Saviour beyond 
the borders of Judea, and this circumstance rendered it highly im- 
portant, that every thing connected with the transaction should as* 
sume the form of an established precedent, and as such be handed 
down to future ages, as worthy of all imitation. But as Philip was 
only a subordinate officer in the Church, he could not celebrate 
the rite of confirmation, and the Apostles instantly deputed two of 
their number to remedy the deficiency; in what they considered a 
pressing exigency, to celebrate this holy ordinance. So that not- 
withstanding the neglect and practical contempt, which it sustains 
in this eventful age, at the hands of the seceding Churches; be- 
lieve me, Brethren, it should be with us a source of unfeigned 
pleasure to reflect, that the first mission ever undertaken by the 
Apostles, in their character of evangelists, was for the ex- 
press purpose of imposing hands upon the baptized converts of 
Samaria. 

Neither let us be persuaded to think ourselves released from its 
reception on the ground, that the course pursued was extraordinary 
in its character, and restricted in its design. For if this be true: 
How could the laying on of hands be termed one of " the first prin=. 
ciples of the oracles of God?" How are we to account for its be- 
ing again resorted to in the instance of the twelve disciples of John, 
whom St. Paul met at Ephesus, and directly inquired, " Have ye 
received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto 
him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy 
Ghost. And he said unto them, Uno what then were ye baptized? 
And they said unto John^s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily 
baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, 
that they should believe on him which should come after him, that 
is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in 
the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands 
upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with 
tongues, and prophesied." 

See ye not therefore, Brethren, how completely the whole tenour 
of this transaction corresponds with the preceding? In that, bap- 
tism was followed by confirmation and the descent of the Holy 
Ghost. So in this. In that, it was an inferiour minister, who bap- 
tized and Apostolick hands, that confirmed. So in this, Paul hav- 



109 



ing elsewhere thanked God that he had baptized none, but Crispus 
and Gaius, and the household of Stephanas. And what additional 
evidence can any man in reason require, either in favour of con- 
firmation itself, or in proof of its being only performed by the 
highest order in the Christian priesthood ? An order now known to 
episcopalians alone; in whose judgment, and as you have already 
seen, in the judgment of all antiquity, bishops are the duly au- 
thorized successors and representatives of the Apostles, by whom 
they were exclusively empowered both to ordain jmd confirm in the 
one holy universal Church. What additional evidence can any 
man in reason require ? 

I repair as usual to the fathers of the primitive Church, and find 
myself at once surrounded by testimony, inferiour only to that of 
the Apostles. Among the most renowned of them is Tertullian, a 
writer of acknowledged merit of the second century, about eighty 
years after the death of John. He informs us, in the clearest terms, 
that " After baptism, is the laying on of hands; by blessing and 
prayer, inviting the Holy Spirit, who graciously descends from the 
Father upon the bodies cleansed and blessed by baptism." And 
again, " The flesh is sealed, that the soul may be defended, the flesh 
is shadowed by imposition of hands, that the soul may be illumina- 
ted by the Spirit." 

To him succeeded, after the lapse of fifty years, Cyprian the fa- 
mous bishop of Carthage, who is not less explicit in his language, 
and indeed traces up confirmation to the Apostles themselves: 
K They who believed in Samaria, were baptized ; prayer was said 
over them, and hands laid upon them, that the Holy Ghost might 
be invoked and poured upon them ; which" he continues £i »is still 
the custom with us, that they who are baptized into the Church, 
should be solemnly dedicated by the bishops of the Church, and 
may receive the Holy Ghost by the imposition of hands." 

Cornelius, of the same age, and bishop of Rome, speaking of a 
celebrated disorganizer, uses these remarkable words ; " Though 
Novatus were baptized, yet being not consummated with the seal of 
confirmation, he could not receive the Holy Ghost." 

Ambrose, bishop of Milan, who flourished in the middle of the 
fourth century, reminds the youthful Christian, " Thou hast receiv- 
ed the spiritual seal, God the Father hath sealed thee, Christ hath 
confirmed thee." And elsewhere, H By imposition of hands it is 



110 



believed the Spirit may be received, which is wont to be done afte>. 
baptism, by the bishop, for the confirmation of unity in the Church.''' 
More copious evidence than this cannot surely be expected ; it 
supersedes the necessity of argument, and I will only annex the 
equally satisfactory account of Jerome, who lived in the fourth cen= 
tury, and who observes " It is the custom of the Church for bishops 
to go and invoke the Holy Spirit by imposition of hands, on such as 
were baptized by presbyters and deacons, in villages and places re- 
mote from the mother Church." « Do you ask," he says, " where 
this is written? In the Acts of the Apostles," is his reply. Words 
more definite or luminous, cannot be chosen, and when united with 
the preceding extracts, they form the unequivocal testimony of nu- 
merous highly distinguished and pious Christian divines of the 
primitive Church, in favour of the Apostolick origin and universal 
observance of confirmation, or the laying on of hands upon the dis-? 
ciples of Jesus. 

Who then shall presume to disparage its virtue, or to pronounce 
it an innovation upon ecclesiastical discipline and the ordinances 
divinely established ? Are we wiser than the Fathers, more com- 
petent to understand the facts recorded in the scriptures, and better 
qualified to bear testimony to the doctrines and institutions, which 
obtained in the earliest times? Are we even wiser than those 
scriptures themselves, than Paul, and Peter, and John, who spake 
and acted as they were moved by the Holy Ghost? Let me not hear 
of Roman Catholick corruptions, a most favourite theme, with which 
to impose upon the prejudices of the multitude. This rite and these 
testimonies existed long before the rise of popery, and the single 
circumstance of its unlimited adoption speaks volumes in behalf of 
its heavenly origin. 

Upon no other principle can we account for the undeviating prac- 
tice of it, on tlie part of all Christendom. If it had been the inven- 
tion of uninspired men, opposition would have discovered itself in 
some quarter or other. But in the best and purest ages, it appears 
to have been as extensively known and embraced as either of the 
sacraments ; an event, that would have been morally impossible, 
had it not commenced in demonstration of the Spirit and in power; 
and therefore Jerome boldly argues, " if there were no authority of 
scripture for it, yet the consent of all the world, in this particular, 
is as good as a command that is, as clearly shows its Apostol/ck 



ill 

derivation. You cannot say this of presbyteri'anism or of publick 
extemporary prayer; they never were universal; they sprung into 
existence in the sixteenth century, have always been strenuously 
opposed, and are still neglected by an immense majority of Chris- 
tians. 

Happy then, Brethren, are those, who adhere to a Church, under 
whose auspices, they may yet enjoy the sanctifying ordinance un= 
der review; this merciful medium of grace, recommended to our af- 
fectionate regard, as well by its divine sanction, as by the universal 
usage of all, who for the first fifteen centuries of the Christian dis- 
pensation, named the name of Christ. 

And even when the reformation in Continental Europe introduced^ 
through what was deemed necessity, a new order of things, throwing 
away with the tares of superstition, many pure grains of heavenly 
wheat; even then it was but slowly and with great apparent reluc- 
tance, that the *ite of confirmation, was abandoned. I gather this* 
from Calvin, who would seem to identify it, with the~ laying on of 
hands enumerated among the rudiments of Christianity by St. ^aul, 
and who remarks, that " Young persons, when their infancy was 
past, and they had been instructed in their faith, offered themselves 
for catechism, which they had after baptism ; but another rite was 
applied, viz: the imposition of hands/' 7 In another work, the fourth 
book of his institutes, he even explains the benefits attached to its 
celebration, saying, " It was an ancient custom in the Church for 
the children of Christians, after they were come to years of discre- 
tion, to be presented to the bishop, in order to fulfil that duty which 
was required of adults who offered themselves to baptism. For such 
persons were placed among the catechumens, till, being duly in- 
structed in the mysteries of Christianity, they were enabled to make 
a confession of their faith before the bishop and alf the people. 
Therefore, those who had been baptized in their infancy, because 
they had not then made such a confession of faith before the Churchy 
at the close of childhood, or the commencement of adolescence ? 
were again presented by their parents, and were examined by the 
bishop according to the form of the catechism which was then in 
common use. That this exercise, which deserved to be regarded as 
sacred and solemn, might have the greater dignity and reverence* 
they also practised the ceremony of imposition of hands. Thus the 
youth, after having given satisfaction respecting his faith, was dis- 
missed with a solemn benediction,™ 



112 



Thus you perceive, that while he acknowledges it to have beenrc= 
quired of persons baptized in adult years, he also admits, that the 
custom was very ancient in relation to such as were baptized in in- 
fancy. Afterwards he confesses, that Jerome considered it " a cus- 
tom of the Apostles," and that he represented it to have been " com- 
mitted wholly to the bishops." The great reforfher was indeed 
utterly opposed, as we are, to the Roman views of confirmation 
being a sacrament of the Gospel ; but still, at the conclusion of the 
passages I have cited, he observes, " Such imposition of hands, 
therefore, as is simply connected with benediction, I highly approve, 
and wish it was now restored to its primitive use, uncorrupted by 
superstition." How similar to the solicitude expressed by Me- 
lancthon on the subject of episcopacy ; " I would to God it lay in me 
to restore the government of bishops." But alas it is more easy to 
open the floodgates of errour, than, once opened, to arrest the deso- 
, lating progress of the stream. The reformers found it thus. Me- 
lancthon sighed in vain for an Apostolick episcopacy; Calvin, for 
what we contend to be the equally Apostolick rite of confirmation, 
They could not control the waters themselves had taught to flow. 
Carried away by the impetuous torrent, they could not prevail upon 
the new Churches to retrace their misguided steps. Luther was 
wiser, he retained the rite under discussion ; it is still practised in 
the Lutheran Churches, and by those in Bohemia. But by our own 
diversified sects, it is altogether renounced • it is reserved to epis- 
copalians alone to yield a hearty obedience to its scriptural authori- 
ty, and to partake of its spiritual blessings. 

In what manner, you may discover by a reference to the book of 
Common Prayer, in which the ceremony commences with an expo-* 
sition of the following import; "To the end that confirmation may 
be ministered to the more edifying of such as shall receive it, the 
Church hath thought good to order, that none shall be confirmed, 
but such as can say the creed, the Lord's prayer, and the ten com- 
mandments; and can also answer to such other questions, as in the 
short catechism are contained : Which order is very convenient to 
be observed; to the end that children, being now come to years -of 
discretion, and having learned what their Godfathers and Godmoth- 
ers promised for them in baptism, may themselves, with their own 
.mouth and consent, openly before the Church ratify and confirm the 
same; and also promise, that, by the grace of God, they will ever- 



113 



more endeavour themselves faithfully to observe such things as 
they, by their own confession, have assented unto." 

Confirmation, in her judgment, is, therefore, properly administer- 
ed to all baptized persons, who have attained an adequate knowledge 
of the elementary principles of their religion, and are so fully con- 
vinced of the necessity of making them the practical rule of their 
lives and conversation, as publickly to re-enact those baptismal 
vows, wherein they had before, either by themselves or by their 
sureties, " renounced the devil and all his works, the vain pomp 
and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, 
and the sinful desires of the flesh wherein they had declared their 
assent to " all the articles of the Christian faith, as contained in 
the Apostles' creed and solemnly covenanted, by the divine as- 
sistance, to " keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk 
in the same all the days of their life." 

The language of the exposition is indeed more immediately ap- 
plicable to such as were baptized in infancy. But this has proba- 
bly resulted from the desire of excluding candidates, until they have 
arrived at a suitable age, and does by no means militate with the 
confirming of persons, who from prejudice or gross misapprehension 
were suffered to remain destitute of this supplementary sign and 
seal of an inward and spiritual grace, during the period of their 
minority. For the bishop invariably inquires, " Do ye here, in the 
presence of God, and of this congregation, renew the solemn prom- 
ise and vow that ye made, or that was made in your name, at your 
baptism ; ratifying and confirming the same ; and acknowledging 
yourselves bound to believe and to do all those things which ye 
then undertook, or your sponsors then undertook for you?" So that 
there is no exception. In the opinion of the Church, all persons 
that have been baptized should be confirmed. 

Before however the ceremony can be rightly entertained, the re- 
cipients must possess the requisite qualifications, and these are, 
" repentance whereby they forsake sin ; and faith whereby they 
steadfastly believe in the promises of God." Of all which they are 
seriously reminded in the exposition and question already rehears- 
ed, when upon an affirmative answer the act of confirmation suc- 
ceeds: The bishop craves the blessing of Almighty God, with the 
gracious influences of the Holy Ghost; and, while etich candidate is 
prostrate upon his knees, imposes hands upon his head* and pro- 

P 



114 



Iiounces the affecting benediction ; " Defend, O Lord, this thy child 
(or, this thy servant) with thy heavenly grace ; that he may conti- 
nue thine forever, and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit more and 
more, until he come unto thy everlasting kingdom. 1 ' After which, 
other prayers ensue, whose general purport it is to implore such 
continued vouchsafements of divine aid and favour, as may enable 
the confirmed to lead the residue of their lives according to the pro- 
fession then made ; a profession that bespeaks their anxiety to be 
found in the paths of obedience, and that is also preparatory to their 
admission to the supper of the Lord. 

Not however, that every individual, who makes it, necessarily 
becomes a communicant; because there are many, who still con- 
sider themselves unprepared for that holy mystery, and there are 
others, whose after conduct so wretchedly belies their most solemn 
protestations,, as to render this blessed consummation of their Chris- 
tian calling altogether inexpedient and improper. Neither on the 
other hand is it absolutely required previous to the reception of the 
sacrament. For if you examine the rubrick at the termination of 
the service, it is there provided, that "none be admitted to the Holy 
Communion, until such time as he be confirmed, or be ready and" 
desirous to be confirmed." The latter clause being added on ac- 
count of the infrequency, and sometimes the entire absence of epis- 
copal visitations, when all godly and piously disposed persons, who 
intend to avail themselves of the introductory rite y at the earliest 
opportunity r are readily received, and- allowed to partake of the 
symbolized body and blood of Christ. 

The invitation given by us to feed upon these sacred mysteries is 
indeed most free and comprehensive. It is like that recorded in the 
scriptures, " Come ; for all things are now ready." All hearers 
are exhorted to consider " the great peril of the unworthy receiv- 
ing thereof; and so to search and examine" their ^ consciences 
that" they " may come holy and clean to such an heavenly feast in 
the marriage garment required by God in holy scripture." They 
are publiekly addressed in these solemn words, "Ye who do truly 
and earnestly repent you of your sins, and are in love and charity 
with your neighbours, and intend to lead a new life, following the 
commandments of God, and walking from henceforth in his holy 
ways; draw nea? with faith, and take this holy sacrament to your 
comfort." They are also encouraged, in case of self-condemning 



115 



apprehensions, to open their grief to the minister of God's word, 
that they " may receive such godly counsel and advice, as may tend 
to the quieting of their " consciences, and the removing of all scru= 
pie and doubtfulness." 

But then, after these invitations, warnings, and encouragements, 
we leave them to determine their duty between themselves and their 
God. We erect no tribunal, from among their brethren of the laity, 
for the purpose of severely scrutinizing their hearts, of sitting in 
judgment upon the sacred operations of God's Holy Spirit, and de- 
ciding the extent of his progress in each individual, through the 
medium of questions and answers, and by the passage of a final vote 
of admission or rejection. We think, that a jurisdiction of this in- 
quisitorial character, is contrary to the example of the Apostles, 
who never appear to have consulted their previous converts, as to 
the propriety of receiving any individuals into the Christian Church. 
We think it directly opposed to the inspired command, " Judge not, 
that ye be not judged and are content to refer these things to 
those, whose office it is to administer the sacraments of the gospeI 5 
constantly inviting the penitent and faithful to their reception, and 
only repulsing such as are " open and notorious evil livers." 

Yes, Brethren, these are the principles, and this is the practice 
of the Church. We require the professions made at the baptismal 
font, prior to admission at the holy communion^ and with the ex- 
planation I hav£ given, the subsequent rite of confirmation. But 
these preparatory steps are burdened by no judicial process and 
investigation on the part of laicks. Against all such interference 
we solemnly protest, and are happy in the belief, that our views 
are substantially mSintained, by some of the great pillars of the 
dissenting Churches. 

I shall here present you with the sentiments of a no less distim 
guished divine of the presbyterian sect, than Dr. Mason, formerly 
of New- York. "God hath reserved -to himself the prerogative of 
exploring secret motives, " I Jehovah search the heart, and try the 
reins." And it is a source of ineffable consolation, that none but 
himself can try them. The obstruction of the creature is com- 
pletely barred out by his own unchangeable constitution, I bless 
him for it. I had rather perish than have my heart searched by 
man or angels; and I put them all at defiance to declare what 
passes in my breast any further than I myself inform them by my 



116 



own act. Whoever therefore maintains that the reality of conver- 
sion is the reason of admission to Christian privileges lays down a 
rule that can never be applied. There are none who furnish more 
conclusive evidence of its nullity, than those who most warmly con- 
tend for it. A single observation will put this in a strong lights 
They who without the aid of a revelation, either from myself or 
my Creator, can read my hidden thoughts on one occasion, can 
read them on any other. Therefore if they can ascertain sincerity 
in religion, they can equally ascertain it in their civil transaction^- 
and consequently" would never be imposed upon. But to such 
lengths, they do not pretend to go: that is, they proclaim the falsity 
of their own doctrine and the futility of their own rule. How 
dare they, who cannot detect a perjury in the custom house, or a 
lie in the shop, represent themselves as able to detect hypocrisy in 
religious professions ? It is foolish conceit, it is contemptible quack 
ery. — Take notice how they use their own rule. They get a man 
to recount his experience. If satisfied with that, they set him down 
as converted. You see, that for the facts on which they build 
their judgment, they have all his own word j and yet they talk of 
ascertaining his state! Two plain questions on this head, and we 
shall leave them. — If their man should say nothing at all, how 
would they find out his state? — If he should happen to amuse them 
with a tale of experience, such as they approved and he never felt, 
where is their knowledge of his state ?— As for those who undertake 
to discern spirits, without producing their authority from the Father 
of spirits, under his broad seal of miracles, nothing is so amazing 
about them as their effrontery. All sober men should eschew 
them as jugglers and impostors. An astrologer who casts na- 
tivities from the aspects of the planets ; or a strolling gipsey who 
predicts the history of life from the palm of a child's hand, is as 
worthy of credence as they." 

After this long extract, sound in principle and powerful in ex- 
pression, there is no necessity of my appending a single observa- 
tion in support of the practice prevailing in our primitive Church. 
Its mode of admission to the table of the Lord is in perfect unison 
with the scriptures, and is alike admirably adapted to check the 
presumption of the fanatick, and to repress the operations of a 
self-righteous and censorious spirit. 



117 



In drawing to a conclusion, Brethren, allow me to remark to you, 
?hat throughout the confirmation service, there is evidently display- 
ed the same devotional fervour and unaffected humility, which 
pervade every part of our beautiful liturgy, and that almost force 
upon the worshipper corresponding sentiments of piety and self- 
abasement. There is also a manifest propriety in renewing our 
baptismal engagements, especially if entered into during the un- 
conscious hours of infancy, which strongly recommends the uni- 
versal reception of the rite itself, as eminently calculated to im- 
press the young, with a lasting sense of the importance of religion, 
and of the imperious obligation of submitting in spirit and in truth 
to all the ordinances of our blessed Lord and Master, whether 
originating in his own, or in the ministry of his chosen Apostles. 

I have indeed sometimes thought of confirmation, that it might 
have been anticipated in those memorable words of Christ ; " Ex- 
cept a man be born of water, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God." Certain it is, that those confirmed, by Peter, 
and John, and Paul, are represented to have been first baptized or 
born of water, and afterwards to have received or to have been born 
of the Holy Ghost, at the laying on of the Apostles' hands. Cer- 
tain it is, that Paul hath made an obvious distinction between "the 
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;'" and 
it is far from impossible, but that confirmation may be implied in 
the latter phrase, as well as baptism in the former; it is far from 
impossible, but that the unconsciously baptized infant may be only 
born of water, while it is reserved for the confirmed adult, worthily 
embracing the ordinance, to be born of the Spirit. Of the Ephe- 
sians converted in mature years, it is written in relation to their 
spiritual union with Christ ; " In whom ye also trusted, after that 
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation : in whom 
also, after that ye believed," and belief we know was immediately 
followed by baptism, " ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of 
promise." Wherein the word "sealed," in the opinion of the an- 
cient fathers, conveyed alike the idea of the outward sign of laying 
hands upon the head, and of the inward grace impressed upon the 
heart. . 

In favour of the present suggestion, there is besides the declara- 
tion of Peter ; " Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the 
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins ? and ye shall re- 



118 



ceive the gift of the Holy Ghost;' There is this affirmation of 
John the baptist; "I indeed baptize you with water unto repent- 
ance : but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes 
I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, 
and with fire." There is the well known fact, that the Apostles, 
wjio had partaken of this baptism, were directed by the risen Sa- 
viour, " that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for 
the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard from me." 
And then succeeds the explanation; "For John truly baptized 
with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not 
many days hence;" evidently referring to the miraculous effusion 
of the Spirit upon them, on the day of Pentecost. There is finally, 
the extraordinary spectacle exhibited at the baptism of our Lord; 
"Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the 
water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the 
Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him." 

In hazarding the preceding opinion, as having occasionally cross- 
ed my mind, I am therefore far from being unsustained by the 
language of scripture. It is indeed the most probable judgment, 
that can be formed of the passages recited. The longer we reflect 
upon them, the deeper will the conviction be impressed upon our 
understandings, and the greater our confidence, that doctrines are 
often boldly maintained upon much more equivocal premises. But 
whether correct, or incorrect, I know to a certainty, that confirma- 
tion, or the laying on of hands upon private Christians, is distinctly 
set forth in three several passages of holy writ, and that it was 
fully acceded to and practised by the spiritual fathers of the primi- 
tive Church. I know, that wherever it is enjoyed, it obviates much 
of the clamour against infant baptism, arising from the absence of 
ihc supposed prerequisites: inasmuch as infants, when arrived at 
maturity, can, at the time of its reception, take upon themselves 
those promises of faith, repentance, and obedience, which were 
made in their name by the believing sponsors, who brought them 
to Christ. I know, that it is in itself an ordinance most appropri- 
ate, impressive, and solemn, and that whoever partakes of it, with 
a glad heart, a willing and understanding mind, is thereby " sealed 
by the Holy Spirit of God unto the day of redemption." 

More than this I need not urge. It is sufficient to justify our 
Churehj for her continued observance in common with an immense 



119 



majority of believers, of a pious, venerable and Apostolick institu= 
tion. The question indeed very naturally occurs, whether by this 
course she does not afford a stricter example of obedience to the 
oracles of God, than those various orders of sectarians, who ^ave 
combined to lay it aside, as a thing of naught. The question very 
naturally occurs, and the answer cannot be mistaken; although it is 
perhaps better to waive a more explicit re>ply, lest in asserting the 
greater purity of our revered Zion, I should be thought to criminate 
the motives, as well as the practice of our fellow Christians ; when 
He, who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins, well knows, that 
had I the mantle of Elijah, I would gladly convert it into a robe of 
charity, and extend its shadow to the four corners of the earth; 
there being much to esteem, and much to love among our brethren 
of other folds. 

And yet, so long as it is apparent in the nature of things, that the 
most High God must be more pleased with sincerity in the way of 
truth, than with sincerity in that of errour : So long it is our duty to 
bold fast to the altar, the worship, the ministry of our protestant 
episcopal Church ; and so long should it be our pleasure to conform 
ourselves, with reverent submission, to all the pious usages and in- 
stitutions, which have been perpetuated within her sanctuary from 
the very period, when they were first established by the inspired 
wisdom and authority of the holy Apostles, 

It is in this manner, that we shall outwardly exhibit to the world 
our attachment to the injunctions of our divine Lord and Master, 
It is in this manner, that the, unconfirmed, if they possess a true and 
lively faith in the efficacy of his redemption, will embrace the earli- 
est opportunity of repairing to his authorized ambassadors, and like 
the converts of Samaria, and the disciples of Ephesus, reap the 
spiritual benefits attending the imposition of their hands, even those 
blessed gifts of the Spirit, which were once known to have accom- 
panied the ceremony, as it is written, "Then laid they their hands 
on them, and they received the Holy Ghost," Amen* 



120 



SERMON X. 

isaiah lxii. 1. 

For Ziori>s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem^ sake 
4 I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness ^ 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii. 

IF there are any persons upon the face of the globe, calling 
themselves Christians, who profess to discard the assembling of 
themselves together, for the avowed object of worshipping the Lord 
God of their fathers, if there are any such persons I am ignorant of 
their existence. I know not the sect to which they belong. Their 
numbers must be too insignificant to require a passing notice from 
the most zealous defenders of our formularies of publick worship. 

Infidels are in this respect the only opposers, the sole deriders of 
a species of devotion commended to every man's conscience bv the 
authentick words of scripture, and to the propriety of whose ob- 
servance, both Jews and Christians have from the earliest times 
united in bearing their decided testimony. Here, with the true fol- 
lowers of the Lamb, there is no diversity of sentiment. All concur 
in advocating the publick worship of God. All esteem it one of the 
most essential features of a religious life. All, who recognise the 
holy sabbath as a divine institution, devote some portion of its sa- 
cred hours, openly and avowedly, to the reasonable service of their 
Great Creator and Almighty Friend. 

They differ indeed, as to the mode of conducting the ceremony, 
Unhappily for the peace and prosperity of Zion, they agree not as to 
the posture of the body during its performance, whether it should 
be bowed down or erect; nor as to the spiritual part, whether it 
should be with precomposed or with extemporary prayers. It is 
even too true. to be seriously denied, that there is scarcely an epi- 
thet of derision or of reproach, which has not been liberally applied 
to all those publick forms and ceremonies, which have for ages pre- 
vailed in the Church, as peculiarly appropriate in the expression of 



121 



human homage and human dependence. I will not repeat one from 
the long and disgraceful catalogue, They must be familiar to your 
recollection, and have doubtless proved among the most successful 
weapons, which have been brandished against us by the art and 
subtlety of man's device. I prefer a more calm and dispassionate 
investigation, than would be likely to result from the refutation of 
coarse invective, and, must I say it, of the grossest ribaldry. I 
prefer, with the scriptures in my hand, with reason in my mouth, 
and the temper becoming the minister of the lowly Jesus in my heart ; 
I prefer with these, to defend and vindicate all the usages of our 
much injured Church, in her house of prayer and praise. 

To begin with the subject of least comparative importance,- 1 fear 
that many zealous religionists have not hesitated to condemn every 
organized mode of bodily worship, or at best, that they have so sim= 
plified and cramped exteriour reverence, that the bare powers of 
vision would often fail to instruct us, as to the precise nature of their 
assemblies, whether they were collected together, as listeners or as 
worshippers. But that nothing, wearing the semblance of indiffer- 
ence, should take place in outward devotion, reason itself combines 
with the voice of scripture, and proclaims its impropriety upon the 
clearest and most satisfactory grounds. 

We are certainly, as much indebted to the goodness of God for 
the formation of the body, as for that of the soul, and they are equal- 
ly and inseparably connected in the obligations resulting from the 
continued preservation of life and happiness. Ought there not 
then to be an united expression of gratitude and adoration ; an ex- 
pression as visible to the eye, as audible to the ear? Shall the body 
receive good at the hand of the Lord, shall it be fed, %nd clothed, 
and sustained in sickness and in health, and still refer the solemn 
act of returning homage to the soul alone? Forbid it nature, whose 
sympathies, pervading untaught the bosom of her meanest children, 
invariably produce some external mark and gesture of humility to- 
wards the object of their prevailing hopes and fears. Forbid it civ- 
ilized society, whose constant solicitude it is to render significant 
tokens of honour in the presence of those, whom either the endow- 
ments of the mind, or the virtues of the heart; whom even the for- 
tune of arms, the glitter of wealth, or the pomp and circumstance of 
office have enabled to reach an elevated rank in the scale of being,. 
And shall we not. with these things perpetually occurring before 

n 



122 



our eyes, freely admit, that the Creator of the universe, He, in whom 
the body lives, and moves, and has its being, possesses some sub- 
stantial claims upon its pious reverence? Shall we not cheerfully, 
concede, that it is very meet, and right, and our bounden duty, in 
our intercourse with his sacred courts, to adopt such corporeal 
postures, as will clearly evince our solemn belief of his own in- 
spired annunciation, " Here will I dwell ?" 

Surely, Brethren, it is a conduct so natural and becoming, so 
strikingly expedient and praiseworthy, that I am lost in astonish- 
ment, whenever I reflect that the external religious ceremonies of 
'our Church were among the motes and eyesores most bitterly in- 
veighed against in the days of puritanical schism and intolerance 
We are too frail in our natures, too wayward in our fancies, to rely 
entirely upon the good desires and dispositions of the soul, and con- 
sequently publick worship to be celebrated in the beauty of holiness 
requires all the extrinsick aid, within the compass of our ability to 
employ. 

Accordingly we find, that all the holy men of God, whose praise 
is in the scriptures ever resorted to some devotional attitudes or oth 
er, as useful auxiliaries to the spirit, in offering up the sacrifices of 
prayer and praise. The spreading forth of the hands unto the Lord 
in the heavens, was observed by Moses, after one of his interviews 
with the prevaricating Pharaoh; by David, when his soul was fam- 
ished in a dry and thirsty land; and by the wisest of men, when in 
the presence of all the congregation of Israel, he dedicated the tern- 
pie, which was filled with the excellent glory. The prostration of 
the body, or falling upon the face, was also practised by the Jewish 
lawgiver, when for the space " of forty days and forty nights," he 
" did neither eat bread nor drink water, because of the sins" of the 
people, and by the holy Job, when informed of the loss of his sub- 
stance, and the untimely death of his children . For he e£ arose, and 
rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, 
and worshipped, and said," " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath ta- 
ken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord." 

Nor in this enumeration, let me fail to remind you, that genuflec- 
tion or the bending of the knee, a position so humbly adopted by the 
Church, is amply supported in sacred writ, by the authority of the 
psalmist, who exhorting all the people to the worship of God ex- 
claimed, "O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel be* 



123 



fore the Lord our Maker :" By the authority of Daniel, who regular- 
ly " kneeled upon his knees, three times a day, and prayed :" By 
the authority of the pro tomartyr Stephen; for, commending his spirit 
to the Lord Jesus, and imploring the pardon of his murderers, " he 
kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to 
their charge :" By the authority of Peter and Paul, who severally 
" kneeled down and prayed j" the one, when reanimating the corpse 
of the much lamented Tabitha, and the other, when bidding a last 
affectionate adieu to those weeping elders of Ephesus, who were to 
" see his face no more :" By the authority of the blessed Saviour 
of sinners himself, who in the garden of Gethsemane, when his 
soul was "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death," according to St. 
Luke, " kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be wil- 
ling, remove this cup from me : nevertheless, not my will, but thine, 
be done." 

Thus then, the holy scriptures present us with the most unexcep- 
tionable testimony in favour of external worship, without recurring 
to the rites and ceremonies enjoined upon the Jewish Church. All 
the holy men that I have instanced, together with their Master, in 
the most interesting situations that can be imagined, neglected not 
to precede their addresses to the throne of grace, with a correspond- 
ing corporeal act of devotion. If their wants were ever so urgent, 
if their danger ever so imminent, still before presuming to implore 
the interference of heaven, they spread abroad the hands ; they fell 
upon the face; they kneeled, 

Let it not therefore be thought beneath the dignity of Christians 
to follow their example. Let it not be doubted, but that such ex- 
pressive demonstrations have a powerful influence in promoting in- 
tense and fervent supplication and prayer. If the structure of our 
edifices be such, as to make it inconvenient to fall upon the face, we 
can yet fall upon our knees, when we are, or ought to be, confess- 
ing our sins; when we are interceding for their pardon, and invok- 
ing all those mercies and blessings, which we are imboldened to 
3eek for, in the name, and through the merits and mediation of our 
Saviour Christ. A sitting posture is certainly less becoming and 
reverent. I know indeed, that David is once represented to have 
" sat before the Lord," and prayed, and that Nehemiah " sat down, 
and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before 
the God of heaven." But before these examples can be fairly ci<ec[ 



m 

as justifying precedents in our day, we should at least be sure, that 
they have been maturely weighed and conscientiously adopted. For 
otherwise, and unless some infirmity of the body supervenes, seden- 
tary prayer can scarcely prove acceptable to God, scarcely prove a 
sacrifice, in which he shall be well pleased, and ready and willing 
to answer from heaven his dwelling place, 

Similar remarks apply to the erect posture, extremely appropriate 
in praise, where the spirit of a man should be elevated, ardent, and 
sublime. It was the sole devotional employment of Adam in the 
days of his innocence, and was doubtless uttered in a manner^ 
which evinced that there was no fear in love, Wherefore in mag- 
nifying the Lord Most High, for the inestimable gift of the second 
Adam, we may, with singular propriety, lift up our bodies with those 
emotions of perfect love, which cast out fear, and pronounce the 
praises of redeeming love, in an attitude suited to the rapture and 
rejoicing of our souls. But in prayer, there is something in the 
bended knee more characteristick of those feelings of reverence and 
humility, of dependence and submission, of sorrow and contrition 
for sin, which ought fully to pervade the heart, in our application? 
for divine mercy and protection. 

The scriptures are certainly greatly in its favour, and it may not 
be too much to assert, that no one single instance can be produced, 
where an erect position was maintained throughout pablick prayer, 
The case of" the publican standing afar off," and who "smote upon 
his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner," is not in pointy 
the act being private, and the prayer itself ejaculatory. The case 
of Phinehas, and that of the seed of Israel,*- mentioned in the ninth 
chapter of Nehemiah, with a few others, are all susceptible of a con= 
struction comporting with our views, and fully sustained by the au- 
thority of the inspired volume. For if we examine the account giv= 
en of the consecration of the temple in the first book of Kings, it is 
indeed said, that " Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord/* and 
" all the congregation of Israel stood ;" but then, this was only while 
he was pronouncing a blessing upon them, it being afterwards 
added, " that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this 
prayer and supplication unto the Lord, he arose from before the al- 
tar of the Lord, from kneeling on his knees with his hands 
spread up to heaven. And he stood, an,d blessed all the congrega- 
tion of Israel with a loud voice." 



There is besides, in the second book of Chronicles, a relation of 
the same transaction recorded in this manner; "And he stood be- 
fore the altar of the Lord, in the presence of all the congregation 
of Israel, and spread forth his hands, (For Solomon had made a 
brazen scaffold, of five cubits long, and five cubits broad, and three 
cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and upon it he 
stood, and kneeled down upon his knees before all the congre- 
gation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven :)" So 
that this parallel passage clearly indicates, that the standing up, 
spoken of in Kings, was merely preserved while blessing the peo= 
pie; that it was either preparatory or subsequent to the more hum- 
ble act of bowing down; it also clearly indicates, that we may give 
a similar interpretation to the expression in Nehemiah, u the seed 
of Israel separated themselves from all strangers, and stood and 
confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers :" particular- 
ly when it is said in the preceding chapter, " Ezra blessed the Lord, 
the great God : ana all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with 
lifting up their hands ; and they bowed their heads r and worshipped 
the Lord with their faces to the ground." 

Recollect moreover, Brethren, the strong and emphatick declara- 
tion of God himself; u As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall 
bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." Recollect^ 
that St. Paul uses this very expression, as synonymous with the 
lifting up of his voice in prayer ; " For this cause I bow down my 
knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole 
family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, ac- 
cording to the riches of his glory, to he strengthened with might by 
his Spirit in the inner man." Recollect, that when the disciples of 
Tyre, with their wives and children, accompanied Paul and his 
companions out of the city, they all " kneeled down, and prayed," 
Recollect above all, that our blessed Saviour says ; " When thou 
prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are : for they love to 
pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets^ 
that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have 
their reward." 

These surely are passages of some moment; and such, as will not 
follow, nor be led by them, might at least pursue another course, 
without affecting to look down with contempt upon our more scrip- 
tural practice, our alternate rising up to praise the Lord, and bow- 



126 



ing down to supplicate the blessings of his providence and grace. 
They accuse us of formality, of an exceeding fondness for cere- 
mony and show. I will not retort the charges. They are unworthy 
of those, that wear the livery of Christ. I wilJ not even pretend, 
that an upright posture is incompatible with " the effectual fervent 
prayer of a righteous man/' I rather believe the reverse, and that 
this deviation from holy examples is by no means a fatal errour. 
But at the same time, that it is generally, if not utterly, at variance 
with the scriptures has been sufficiently proved. After diligent 
examination, according to my understanding, with the exception 
of the hypocrites referred to and rebuked by our Saviour, I have 
not been able to discover a solitary undisputed example of standing 
up, during the celebration of publick worship. Kneeling, on the 
contrary, is every where to be met with. In allusion to this, Isaiah 
says, " Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees :" 
The Psalmist, " My knees are weak through fasting The Apostle 
Paul, "Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down, and the 
feeble knees;" The Lord Jehovah, in Ezekiel, "All hands shall be 
feeble, and all knees weak." 

How much cause have we therefore, Brethren, to adhere strictly 
to this good old custom originally established by the will of God, 
and piously retained in the Christian Church, from the period of 
its foundation by Christ and his Apostles. A custom most likely 
to prevent the wandering of the sight and to suppress the roving 
of the thoughts. For when the whole person is exposed, and each 
individual assumes an attitude comporting with his own feelings; 
Is there not danger, lest the attention should be attracted to out- 
ward objects, to the entrance of such as either designedly or una- 
voidably delay their attendance, to the various circumstances of 
dress and parade, of concern and unconcern, of propriety and im- 
propriety, which serve to distinguish the appearance and deport- 
ment of others? Alas! I fear we must all of us be free to acknowl- 
edge, that such danger is not so idle and visionary, as to require 
no antidote. We must all of us feel, that indecorum is not so sel- 
dom existing in our worshipping assemblies, as even to neutralize 
the necessity of guarding against it as efficiently as possible. 

Why then should not Christians universally adopt the preventive 
counsels and practice of our holy Church? Especially since there 
is obviously more of humility than of pride in the pliant, bended 



127 



knee; more of composure and self-possession in the hidden and 
retired, than in the devious, rambling eye. God only knows. We 
must not judge, lest we be judged. We must leave every man to 
be fully persuaded in his own mind, and confine ourselves to the 
prayer, that whatever this persuasion be, it may contribute to ac- 
complish the hearty desire of Paul, where he says ; " I beseech you, 
therefore, Brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your 
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
reasonable service.'" 

There are however some other ceremonies observed in our pub- 
lick worship, which have for ages incurred the censure of our fellow 
Christians. My limits will compel me to notice them but briefly, 
although I trust, that the explanation and defence will be as satis* 
factory as brief. In repeating the Apostles' creed, it is objected, 
that we are accustomed to bow at the moment we express our be- 
lief in Jesus Christ our Lord. For what good reason, I have never 
been able to divine. His Father says, " Let all the angels of God 
worship him;" and again, " Unto the Son, he said, Thy throne, O 
God, is for ever and ever." He was worshipped, by the Apostle 
Thomas, in the unqualified terms, "My Lord and my God." The 
great body of Christians do not hesitate to pay to him divine hon- 
ours, and why this small tribute of our love and reverence should 
be denounced is most extraordinary. I can attribute it to nothing 
but an unreasonable prejudice, or to a captious dislike of eveiy 
thing practised in the Roman Church. For me, it is enough, that; 
the Apostle hath said ; " At the name of Jesus every knee shall 
bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under 
the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ 
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Bowing and confessing 
would therefore seem to be most appropriately blended together in 
this part of our service, and long may we in this manner manifest 
our submission to an authority, that no man can justly condemn. 

Another objection is urged against our kneeling, when we re* 
ceive the elements of bread and wine ; in the sacrament of the 
Lord's supper. But the answer is similar and equally pertinent . 
Those elements are administered and received with the use of these 
solemn words, slightly and from necessity altered from the original ; 
"The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee;" 
and "The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was shed for thee." 



128 

Who then shall refuse to bow at that blessed name ? Who, that is 
<£ not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table," 

0 most merciful Lord, shall venture to brand our lowly posture 
with the semblance of idolatry ? Let us pity, Brethren, the weak- 
ness of such persons. Let us forgive the uncharitableness of their 
imputation. But never, no never let us follow their example, by 
feeding upon those holy mysteries, sitting at our ease, and scorn- 
ing the more humble and reverent attitude. A very accurate 
writer has remarked, " that the posture of sitting was first brought 
into the Church by the Arians; who stubbornly denying the di- 
vinity of our Saviour, thought it no robbery to be equal with him, 
and to sit down with him at his table.'" From the same Author, 

1 also learn that " the pope" " always receives this sacrament sit- 
ting." So that in one particular, if no more, our seceding protestant 
brethren must refrain from the cry of superstition and popery ; they, 
who prefer to copy after the solitary example of His Holiness. 
u rather than not differ from the best and purest Church in the 
world." 

The use of the organ is another serious and insurmountable 
objection to the publick worship of the Church. David, the man 
after God's own heart, in the temple service, could listen to the 
ten-stringed instruments and other harps of solemn sound; and 
could compose hymns to be accompanied by their melod) 7 . The 
Almighty himself could then endure instrumental as well as vocal 
musick. He could tolerate the lyre, the sackbut, and the psaltery, 
the timbrel, the trumpet, and the organ in his house of prayer. 
But many of our modern Christian brethren are fain to think that 
a change has ensued in him, "with whom there is no variable- 
ness, neither shadow of turning," and that what was once pleasing 
and acceptable has ceased to be gratifying to the divine ear. 

Not that they can produce the slightest evidence in favour of 
their opinion; not that our Saviour drove away the musicians, with 
the moneychangers from the temple at Jerusalem; not that there 
is one word from him, from the Apostles, or primitive Christians 
authorizing them to proclaim war against instruments of musick 
in our Churches. No, no such thing. They can discover no such 
valid pleas against them. It is simply because the Catholicks con- 
tinue their use, that they persist in banishing their melody from the 
house of God. In vain did this gracious Being admit them in his 



129 

Solemn worship, In vain are they told by St. John, in the Apoca- 
lypse; "I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, 
and as the voice of a great thunder ; and I heard the voice of harp- 
ers harping with their harps." Not the divine appointment, not 
the practice of high heaven itself can control the prejudices of some 
of our dissenting brethren. They will neither with the organ 
praise the Lord themselves, nor can they find it in their hearts to 
think or to speak charitably of those who do. We must suffer them 
to act their own pleasure. For ourselves, we cannot but know, 
that the organ has a most valuable and solemn effect, whenever 
we are here "speaking to ourselves in psalms, and hymns, and 
spiritual songs 5 singing and making melody in our hearts to the 
Lord." 

The only remaining objection, to which I shall direct your at- 
tention arises from the wearing of distinguishing garments by 
the clergy of the Church, during the celebration of divine service. 
And surely nothing but a most inveterate habit of discerning motes 
and beams; in the eyes of others; could have furnished our opposers 
with the shadow of a reason, against a practice so becoming in 
itself, and so fully sanctioned by the volume of inspiration. They 
cannot have forgotten what minute directions were given to Moses, 
in relation to the vestments to be worn by the Jewish priests ; " And 
thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, for glory 
and for beauty. And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise-heart- 
ed, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may 
make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister 
unto me in the priest's office. And these are the garments which 
they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a 
broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle." The succeeding details are 
too voluminous to repeat ; but the dresses for the high priest, priests, 
and Levites are all described with the utmost minuteness, and 
evince beyond all doubt, that the Almighty is very far from dis- 
approving the modest and appropriate attire, in which the ministers 
of his Church are at present clothed. 

The surplice in particular cannot be offensive to Him, who is 
represented by Daniel, as habited in a "garment white as snow;" 
nor to our Saviour, whose "raiment," at the transfiguration, " was 
white as the light." In the Revelations, it is also apparent, that 
the Church herself i? to be hereafter adorned with the snme ap= 

S 



130 



parel ; " Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him : for 
the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself 
ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine 
white linen, clean and white : for the fine linen is the righteousness 
of saints.'" 

To be perpetually upbraiding her ministers, for putting on the 
like simple and beautiful garments, betra) 7 s therefore but little 
respect for the wisdom of the heavenly bridegroom. It is reviling 
what God hath honoured, and his beloved Son approved. Address- 
ing the angel of one of the seven Churches of Asia, he says, 
Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled 
their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they 
are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in 
white raiment ; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of 
life, but I will confess him before my Father, and before his angels." 
And with such authority,, such ample promises of reward to the 
faithful, the ministers of Christ need not care to bear the obloquy 
of men. The divine countenance is all sufficient to extract the 
sting, and blunt the edge of their foulest calumnies. 

" What offence" said Jerome, " What offence can it be to God for 
a bishop or priest, &,c, to proceed to the communion in a white 
garment?" An interrogatory, that clearly shows the custom of th& 
primitive Church, and that should cause a blush to mantle the 
cheeks of those, who in declaiming against the external worship^ 
the rites, ceremonies, and habiliments of our Zion, appear to be 
entirely ignorant of the fact, that they are alike opposing the in- 
stitutions of God, the will of Christ, the judgment of his Apostles, 
and the faith and practice of the primitive Church, 

I would not indeed set too high a value on the outward appear- 
ance, knowing that the Lord looketh on the heart, and thence de- 
termines the true character of every man's work, whether it be 
good or whether it be evil. But if the subjects discussed, and the 
usages defended in this discourse are altogether useless and unim- 
portant; if corporeal worship and the mode of its performance 
cannot possibly become an acceptable sacrifice in the sight of 
heaven: Why was it, in one of the conflicts attending the journey 
through the wilderness : Why was it, " when Moses," in a suppli- 
cating posture, "held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when 
helot down his hand Amalek prevailed?" Why was it, when his 



131 



imploring » hands were heavy," that Aaron and Hur « took a stone, 
and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stay- 
ed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other 
side ; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 
And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of 
the sword?" 

These, Brethren, are the words of scripture^ they were written 
for our instruction, and if I am capable of comprehending their im- 
port, they do most indubitably prove, that the Almighty is to be 
obeyed in all things, Tiowever trivial and insignificant they may 
appear, in the eyes of erring man; that he even suspends his bles- 
sings upon the external features of that obedience; and in the 
present instance only bestowed them, where bestowment was sought 
after in the way of his appointment, Permit me also to remark 5 
that the whole transaction is far more open to the shafts of raillery, 
than any observances upon which I have this day insisted, as di- 
vinely ordained. And still, it was the counsel and the work of 
God, still shall no cunningly devised ridicule convince me, that the 
armies of Israel would have prevailed over those of Amalek, had 
not Moses, and Aaron, and Hur discharged their duty precisely as 
it was discharged. 

The case of Naaman, the Syrian, is not less decidedly to the 
purpose. Directed by the prophet, for his cure, to " Go and wash 
in Jordan seven times;" he "was wroth and went away, and saidj 
Behold I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and 
call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the 
place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of 
Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ? May I not wash 
in them and be clean?" But if he had not happily returned to a 
better mind, if he had not "dipped himself seven times in Jordan, 
according to the saying of the man of God ;" never would his flesh 
have " come again like unto the flesh of a little child," never would 
he have become <* clean." 

It is from such passages, that I obtain the principles, which regu- 
late my conduct in relation to the Church of Christ. Show me 
what God hath established, and my faith is secured, my obedience 
is compelled : There is a voice from heaven ever whispering to my 
heart the doctrine it once sounded aloud in the ears of Peter, 
" What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common," And tljese 



132 



are sentiments, which I wish to inculcate upon the minds* of all. 
Wit and ridicule have no place in my creed. They are entirely- 
irrelevant, when sported upon heavenly things. Let those, who 
differ in opinion with us; let those, who are prejudiced against our 
peculiar ceremonies, substitute argument for satire, and testimony 
for assertion ; let them prove that they have proceeded from a cor? 
rupt source, and not from the unerring counsels of heaven ; let 
them do this, and I will be as ready to adopt their system, as I am 
now zealous in maintaining what is conscientiously believed to be 
the truth divulged in holy oracles. 

In the meantime, I shall go on my way rejoicing in the convio 
tion, that our Church only requires to be generally known, in order 
to be generally embraced ; and that the more her peculiarities are 
investigated, the more certainly it will appear, that she has her 
foundation upon the Rock of Ages. The morning of the next sab- 
bath will be devoted to the subject of publick forms of prayer; and 
although I am sensible of the injurious light in which they are too 
often regarded, I shall proceed with the utmost confidence in main- 
taining their intrinsick value and scriptural origin. And may Al- 
mighty God, in the abundance of his goodness, grant me wisdom 
to examine, with power and effect, one of the most interesting 
features of our spiritual economy. May he enable me to contend 
successfully, as well as earnestly, for the faith once delivered to 
the saints; and to him, the Father, with the Son and Holy Ghost, 
shall be ascribed everlasting praises, world without end. Amen. 



133 



SERMON XI. 

isaiah lxii. 1. 

For Z ion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I irill not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

IN my last discourse, I attempted to vindicate the mode of 
conducting the visible publick worship of the Church, and flatter 
myself with the hope, that you must have perceived how admirably 
and how faithfully it coincides with the injunctions and examples 
exhibited in the scriptures. With many persons all these observan- 
ces are regarded with the utmost contempt, not to say abhorrence. 
They revile them for what they ignorantly term their papal origin, 
and fondly imagine their own to be a far more simple and devout 
method of approaching the throne of grace, and paying their 
homage to the great Jehovah. Before the kings of this earth, the 
knee may be bent, but not before the King of Kings and Lord of 
Lords. It would be too formal, perhaps too servile and obsequious. 
It would savour too much of those abjects, who fawn upon the per- 
sons of princes, and little coalesce with our sternly inflexible re- 
publican principles. 

But embrace, Brethren, what doctrines you please in relation to 
this world and its political institutions, they must not come in com- 
petition with the higher concerns of religion. God will still con- 
tinue to be King in Zion, and Lord of All ; " his kingdom is an 
everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to gen- 
eration," In his presence, every high look should be cast down, 
and every stubborn knee be bent. It is more reverent, more hum- 
ble, more expressive of the infinite disparity subsisting between 
tlje august Creator, and the poor worms of the dust, who feed upon 
his bounty, who respire the vital fluid, and enjoy all the good things 
of this life, by his permission alone. 

I freely concede, that external ceremonies are not to be compared 
with the lifting up of the heart unto God in the heavens. I know 



134 



that our Saviour severely rebuked those pharisces, who paid tithes 
of all that they possessed, even of " mint and rue, and all manner 
of herbs.'" But recollect the cause. It was not, as some people 
would adroitly argue; it was not, that he condemned the extreme 
rigour with which they complied with the letter of the law. It was 
because they did not at the same time catch its spirit. ■ It was be- 
cause they exhausted all their obedience in the minor duty, and 
"passed over judgment and the love of God;" passed over " the 
weightier matters," and rigidly observed the lighter; when in his 
estimate of religious obligation, there should have been no omission 
of either; when to use his own emphatick language, "these ought 
ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." Language 
that as broadly condemns the modern despiser, as it once did the 
ancient observer of little things. I am therefore for that golden 
mean, that truly safe 'and Christian course; which ventures not, on 
any pretence whatever, to set aside a single ceremony, institution, 
precept, or doctrine, which the divine wisdom hath ordained. I am 
for both outward and inward devotion. I am for cultivating the 
latter, in the precise dress and manner, in which the former was 
originally clothed and approved of heaven, When I come to ap- 
pear before thee, O God, in the congregation of the righteous, may 
my knees be as prone, as my heart should be humble ; may my pray^ 
crs be the same with that beautiful and solemn liturgy, which has 
for ages survived the scorn of the scorner, and extorted the admira- 
tion of the wise and good. 

With respect to prayer, it is indeed most astonishing, that a con- 
trary practice was ever sufFered to prevail among those, who call 
themselves, and many of whom doubtless are, the sincere disciples 
of Jesus. It is at variance with all scripture, with the counsels of 
Him, who heareth prayer, with the precedents furnished for our 
imitation by the prophets and the Jewish Church, by our blessed 
Saviour, the Apostles, and primitive Christians. For pubiick ex- 
temporary prayer in the house of God, I do not scruple to affirm, 
that there is not one syllable in justification from Genesis to Rev- 
elations. It is altogether of recent origin, and of human device, 
It is among that infinitely vast variety of new projects and new 
doctrines, which have come to light since the volume of inspiration 
has been closed, which have neither prophecy nor miracle to enforce 
their claim upon our observance, and that, however conformable t$ 



135 



human prejudice, will not for a single moment endure the test of 
truth and reason. 

For what is the language of truth, of Almighty truth itself? 
" Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to 
utter any thing before God ; for God is in heaven, and thou upon 
earth: therefore let thy words be few." Does this look like unpre- 
meditated extemporaneous prayer? Does it sanction the clothing 
of those thoughts with unselected words, which rise up unadvised- 
ly in the mind, which are the offspring of the moment, and are 
often known to convey ideas and principles, as unfit for God to hear, 
as for man to utter? Certainly, Brethren, if there be such an er= 
rour, as being rash with the mouth, and hasty with the heart in 
uttering any thing before this majestick Being, it must be found 
among those, who disdain to resort to written forms; who boldly 
-pronounce our book of Common Prayer a dead letter, entirely be- 
reft of the life and soul of devotion; who are never too busily en- 
gaged in the cares of this world, or discomposed through human 
passion or human frailty, but that they can rush at a moment's 
warning into the dread presence of God, and pray as confidently, 
as if they had premeditated for hours ? the most solemn performance, 
in which we are ever employed. 

Not however to anticipate the remarks, which will hereafter 
become more appropriate; 1 design to examine, with all the brevity 
in my power, the testimony furnished by the scriptures in favour 
of our mode of conducting publick worship, in the use of precom- 
posed forms of prayer. Did they really deserve the opprobrium,, 
so frequently and so presumptuously cast upon them, it would seem 
very extraordinary, that the earliest act of publick devotion, com- 
memorated by the inspired penmen, should be of this description, 
I allude to the anthem celebrating the deliverance of Israel from 
the hand of Pharoah, and commencing in this exulting strain, "I 
will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse 
and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my streno-tb 
and song, and he has become my salvation: he is my God, and I 
will prepare him an habitation ; my father's God, and I will exalt 
him." You will find the entire anthem in the fifteenth chapter of 
Exodus. You will there find, that it was first sung by Moses and 
the male population of Israel, and that Miriam the prophetess, and 
all the women immediately went out. "with timbrels and dances," 



136 



and " answered them ,, repeating the same words. Nothing theri 
can be more evident than its precomposed character, that it was 
prepared beforehand for general use, and on this triumphant solem- 
nity recited by the general voice. 

Various other forms of devotion in the pentateuch also appear to 
have been divinely prescribed. I will instance but two of them. 
In the twenty first chapter of Deuteronomy, a prayer is provided^ 
to be used after the entrance into the promised land in the case of 
secret homicide. "A heifer, which had not been wrought with, and 
which had not drawn in the yoke," was to be first sacrificed, " and 
the priests, the sons of Levi" were to K come near," " and all the 
elders of that city next unto the slain man," were to " wash their 
hands over the heifer;" they were to "answer and say, Our hands 
have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merci= 
ful, O Lord, unto thy, people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and 
lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge." In 
the sixth chapter of Numbers, " The Lord spake unto Moses, say- 
ing, Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye 
shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless 
thee, and keep thee ; The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be 
gracious unto thee; The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, 
and give thee peace," 

Thus early then did the Almighty sanction the use of forms in 
publick worship. Thus early enjoin them upon the observation 
of the people, whom his own right hand had redeemed from the 
house of bondage. So far from being preferred, extemporaneous 
effusions are not so much as named, in that interesting period of 
Jewish history. All was form: All what is now perversely term- 
ed formality, and it was acceptable to God. It was pleasing and 
grateful to Him, who is now but too commonly supposed to turn 
away with loathiiig and abhorrence from similar acts of prayer 
and praise. In the expiation for murder, it is said, that M the blood 
shall be forgiven them." After the benediction, which he himself 
deigned to compose for Aaron and his sons, it is written, " And 
they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will 
bless them." 

And how was it, Brethren, in the time of David ? Was publick 
worship then celebrated in the premeditated or the unpremeditated 
Mbrm? Let the bible answer, and you will learn, that the Eevites 



137 



irere directed " to stand every morning to thank and praise the 
Lord, and likewise at even," " according to the order commanded 
unto them." Let the entire hymns of prayer, as well as of praise, 
principally composed by the sweet Psalmist of Israel, let them an- 
swer, and you will learn, that they constituted a material part of 
the temple service. On one occasion, David delivered a particular 
"psalm, to thank the Lord, into the hand of Asaph and his breth- 
ren a psalm containing this petition, " Save us, O God of our 
salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, 
that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise 
and when it was repeated, " all the people said, Amen, and praised 
the Lord." 

Nor was this worship confined to that age alone, In the days of 
Hezekiah, and in the house of the Lord, " the king, and all that 
were present with him, bowed themselves, and worshipped. More- 
over, Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites 
to sing praise unto the Lord with the words of David, and of Asaph 
the seer: and they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed 
their heads and worshipped." "So the service of the house of the 
Lord was set in order, And Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people*, 
that God had prepared the people." 

Long afterwards at the erection of the second temple, a similar 
worship prevailed. In the book of Ezra it is said; "When the 
builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the 
priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of 
Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of 
David king of Israel. And they sang together by course, in prais- 
ing and giving thanks unto the Lord ; because he is good, for his 
mercy endureth forever toward Israel. And all the people shout- 
ed with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the 
foundation of the house of the Lord was laid." 

And here let me reiterate the well known fact, that several of 
the psalms were composed in the language of prayer, and at the 
same time were offered up by all the congregation. In the eightieth, 
for example, we have this expression thrice repeated, " Turn us 
again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved." 
In one instance it is even followed by an invocation, that clearly 
shows its imploring character, and the union of priests and people 



13* 



in divine worship; u OLord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be 
angry against the prayer of thy people ?" 

But lest a distinction should still be urged between psalms of 
praise, and petitions for mercy and forgiveness, lest it should be 
said, that while the former were precomposed, the latter were un- 
premeditated ; in addition to the examples already produced, I will 
refer you to the prophet Joel, for a form of prayer, to be repeated 
m the temple ? under these circumstances, " Blow the trumpet in 
Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly : Gather the people- 
together,, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the 
children, and those that suck the breasts; let the bridegroom go 
forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet : Let the 
priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the- 
altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not 
thy heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them.' 7 
After which it is added, " Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, 
and pity his people." "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever 
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered." 

I will refer you to Hosea, for a yet more explicit declaration, in 
favour of forms of prayer, addressed to all the people ; " O Israel; 
return unto the Lord thy God ; for thou hast fallen by thine iniqui- 
ty. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord ; say unto him. 
Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously : so will we ren 
der the calves of our lips. Ashur shall not save us; we will not 
ride upon horses ; neither will we say any more to the work of our 
hands, Ye are our Gods : For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy." 
Yes, Brethren, words were to be taken, words w r ere actually given.. 
And what were the blessings promised in return? "I will heal 
their backsliding, I will love them freelj" : for mine anger is turned 
away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as 
the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall 
spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as- 
Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return ; they 
shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof 
shall be as the wine of Lebanon." 

J low obvious then to every man unperverted by prejudice, that 
the Almighty hath no such objection to precomposed forms of pray- 
er, as is vainiy imagined in these latter days. From the bottom of 
my heart I could wish that they, who on this account are perpetu 



139 



^ily calumniating the service of the Church, could present us with 
numerous examples of publick extemporary prayer from the re- 
cords of the old testament. The difference of worship between us, 
so far as their authority was concerned, would then be circum- 
scribed by the question of relative value or adaptation to the con- 
dition of man j it would cease to exhibit on the one side a flagrant 
departure from the original mode of serving God in his holy temple, 
and no longer prove a formidable obstacle to our being more close- 
ly united in the bonds of Christian fellowship and love. But alas, 
the thing is impossible, not one such example is to be found. Who- 
ever publickly called upon the name of the Lord in the Jewish 
Church, was furnished with words communicated by inspiration 
from heaven. With these, he was to praise the Lord Most High ; 
with these, invoke the throne of grace ; with these, the incense of 
his soul, and the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit were to as- 
cend up on high; and from their combined efficacy were to result all 
those benefits, which the Almighty, in the boundless extent of his mer- 
.cy and benevolence, bestowed upon his ancient and peculiar people. 

Let it however be distinctly understood, that if our blessed Sa- 
viour, in the course of his ministry, had either condemned the eus- 
tomary service of the temple, or had instituted another mode of 
drawing near to God, with a clean heart in full assurance of faith; 
let it be distinctly understood, that this condemnation and this mode 
would not have been in the slightest degree affected by the previous 
forms of devotion prescribed to the Jewish nation. They would 
have been superseded, as circumcision was superseded by baptism, 
and the passover by the supper of the Lord. 

But here, it is very material to be borne in mind, that our divine 
Redeemer never suffered one word of censure to escape his lips^ 
in relation to precomposed prayers. At the period of his advent, it 
is universally admitted, that the Jews possessed a national liturgy, 
and that it was repeated in the temple twice every day at the cele- 
bration of the morning and evening sacrifice. And so far was this 
from being considered a desecration of the courts of the Lord's 
house, that "when the days of her purification, according to the 
law of Moses, were accomplished," thither the virgin Mary repair- 
ed, with her first-born son, the infant Jesus, " to offer a sacrifice ac= 
cording to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of 
turtle-doves, or two young pigeons/' There also it was. that Simeon 



140 



"came by the Spirit," "and the same man was just and devout, 
waiting for the consolation of Israel : and the Holy Ghost was upon 
him." There it was, that " one Anna a prophetess, the daughter of 
Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser," and " a w T idow of about fourscore 
and four years," resided, and " departed not from the temple, but 
served God with fastings and prayers night and da}'." 

And can you believe, if that temple had been profaned by its 
liturgy, that the purification service would have been submitted to, 
by the holy child Jesus, or that Simeon and Anna would have 
b,een so highly commended; the one, for being "just and devout;" 
the other, for "serving God with fastings and praters 9 " Can 
you believe, that the Holy Spirit would have either carried the good 
old Israelite there, or suffered the prophetess to remain joining in 
and contaminated by the breath of unhallowed prayer? The idea 
is too absurd, too preposterous. All these events afford indisputa- 
ble evidence, that God was well pleased with the devotional forms 
there employed, and if many of the priests and worshippers were 
"in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity," that he 
could still address them, in the language, once appropriated to their 
forefathers, " They have well said all that they have spoken. Oh 
that there were such a heart in them." _ 

But even on the supposition, that these inferences are not as fully 
warranted, as I am disposed to maintain ; we all know, that when 
our Saviour had arrived at the years of maturity, and had commenc- 
ed his ministry, he invariably frequented the Jewish synagogue ; the 
synagogue, in which, no man will venture to deny, that publick 
prayers were celebrated after a written form.. For its liturgy is 
still in existence. It was read three times in the course of every 
day, and began in this manner, " O God, let thy name be magnified 
and sanctified in the world, which thou hast created according to 
thy good pleasure. Let thy kingdom have dominion therein, let 
redemption flourish, and let the Messiah come speedily, that thy 
name may be glorified." 

How then, if the contemners of our service are to be credited, and 
their mode is to be preferred, how are we to account for these fre- 
quent visits of Christ to the synagogue ? Provided we are so cold 
and formal in our devotions, owing to their being previously pre- 
pared and understood, how especially are we to account for his 
neglect in not condemning a similar worship ? He could readily re-- 



141 



prove the Jews for every other offence. He could reckon up in oi> 
der the long catalogue of their crimes ; could call them hypocrites, 
whited sepulchres, and a generation of vipers; could, on observing 
their profanation, drive them out from his holy temple; but never, 
no never did he impute to them the slightest errour for their con- 
stant daily use of publick forms of prayer. In his hearing, they were 
rehearsed in temple and in synagogue, but not one word betrayed 
his disapprobation. He never counselled his disciples against them. 
You have heard what he did say, " Thou shalt not be as the hypo- 
crites; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues;" and how 
oasy it would have been to have added, who love to use forms of 
prayer; but no such thing. He rather countenanced those forms 
by his presence, and is even supposed by many to have adopted 
chem himself. 

Nor is this opinion by any means improbable. For had he re^ 
fused to participate in publick worship ; had he appeared, when it 
was celebrated, without uniting his own with the devotions of oth- 
ers; how eagerly would his adversaries have seized upon this cir- 
cumstance to render him odious with the people ; how promptly 
have denounced him, as an impious, prayerless sinner. But amid 
all the vile, detestable calumnies, with which they were fain to 
blacken his reputation, this charge was never suggested ; and cer- 
tainly the profound silence pf so many, and such implacable accu- 
sers, upon a subject so important in itself, is no slight evidence of 
his having joined in the worship of both the synagogue and the 
temple. 

Be this however as it may ; he never objected to the written for- 
mularies observed in either. He never ascribed to them the ineffl- 
cacy and "Want of spirituality, so loudly complained of in our devo- 
tional exercises. He never told them, in their lieu, to pray extem- 
poraneously. So far from this, he did not hesitate to provide for his 
4isciples a form of prayer, the most simple, beautiful, and compre- 
hensive the world has ever seen. I need not repeat it. Of all the inspir- 
ed writings, it is the most familiar to your ears. Long will it be re- 
corded to the praise and glory of the Church, that it preserves a con- 
spicuous place in all her numerous offices of devotion. Encouraged 
in using it, by the express command of its Author, she considers it as 
determining with unerring certainty the abstract question concern- 
ing liturgies.. If they are inexpedient, if they are justly obnoxious 



142 



to the charge of formality; so is the prayer drawn up and recom- 
mended by our Saviour Christ. He must either have erred in judg- 
ment, in yielding to the wishes of his followers, or he must have in- 
tentionally laid them under an obligation fatally calculated to im- 
pair, if not destroy, the fervency of their petitions to the mercy seat. 
How strange ! How very strange ! that the modern expedient never 
entered into his mind, that he never intimated to them the para- 
mount value of extemporaneous addresses. 

But the subject is too solemn and sacred to venture upon the bor- 
ders of irony. I will be very plain and candid. I will show, be- 
yond the possibility of a reasonable doubt, that our blessed Saviour 
must have entertained very different views of publick unpremedita- 
ted prayer, from such as prevail among many of our dissenting 
brethren. Having laid aside all forms, as both idle and pernicious, 
it is well known, that they embrace every opportunity to improve 
what is termed the gift of prayer. In many parts of our country, 
there is scarcely an assembly of any description, which is not open- 
ed in this manner. Not only religious, but moral, literary, and hu- 
mane societies ; not only these, but occasions are selected peculiar- 
ly inappropriate. A regiment cannot meet, an election cannot be 
held, but the confusion, turmoil, and strife of the subsequent scenes 
must be preceded, by the supplications of a single individual, utter 
ed in the name of a congregation, eagerly intent upon the amuse- 
ment or the contention of the day, and never more unprepared to 
appear in the presence of a heart-searching God. But if our di- 
vine Lord intended, that his followers should pursue a course of this 
kind ; Why did he forbear to give us an example? About to appear 
in far more important transactions ; about to heal the sick, to res- 
tore the lame and impotent, the blind, and deaf, and dumb; about to 
cast out devils, and to raise the dead ; Why did he not call upon his 
disciples to listen to the devout aspirations of bis soul, and unite in 
presenting them before his Father in heaven? 

Speaking after the manner of men, I should have thought the so- 
lemnity extremely judicious and proper; but the thoughts of Christ 
were not as our thoughts. He never said to his disciples on these, 
or any other occasional meetings, Let us pray. Often, as a prepa- 
ratory exercise, he would retire by himself, and pour out his soul 
to God. At times, he would also lift up his eyes to heaven, and in 
some short personal ejaculation- invoke its blessing on the miracle 



143 



about to be performed ; but a publick extemporary prayer in its 
present acceptation, he never made. I have carefully examined all 
the incidents of his eventful life, and there is not one to be found, 
The pathetick intercession, in the fifteenth chapter of St. John, does 
not form an exception. The personal pronoun, "I, n is constantly 
employed, and like his other individual devotions, it was probably 
uttered in private, or else, in the mental form implied in this account, 
" And it came to pass, as he was alone praying, his disciples were 
with him." 

And greatly am I supported in this interpretation, and in the 
general conclusion, by the terms adopted by his disciples in the ap- 
plication already adverted to. They could not but perceive the 
frequency, with which he retired from their presence. They could 
not but know the reason, " And it came to pass, that, as he was 
praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said 
unto him, Lord, teach us to pray , as John also taught his disciples." 
The petition was immediately complied with, and the Lord's prayer 
was the result. 

But now, I ask you, if such a request would have ever been pre- 
ferred by them or either of them, provided they had been long 
accustomed to hear from his lips the language of prayer? The an- 
swer cannot be mistaken. That hearing alone would have furnish- 
ed them with the most fitly chosen words, as the model for their 
devotions. There would have been no necessity for the reply. 

When ye pray say, Our Father which art in heaven,* 5 and so 
forth. For when or where, in this age of unpremeditated publick 
addresses to God ; when or where have you known the officiating 
minister to be solicited to teach his hearers to pray? He, who is 
perpetually instructing them by his own performances, and who 
would be very apt to consider the petition itself, an insidious attack 
upon his capacity to lead in the worship of the sanctuary. How 
variant then must be his practice, from the practice of Christ. How 
fairly may we presume, that this wonderful tact and volubility in 
publick prayer, so extensively witnessed in our age, was utterly un- 
known at the period, when the holy Jesus went about continually 
doing good; when from village to village, from city to city, he per- 
formed his marvellous acts, and preached the gospel of the kingdom, 
And has he not in all things left us an example " to walk even 
as he walked?" Has not the Apostle directed us, " Let this mind be 



144 



in you, which was also in Christ Jesus ?" What then are we to thinis 
of this extraordinary innovation and change ? If he could approve, 
by his constant attendance, and scarcely to be questioned use, the 
precomposed liturgies of the temple and synagogue ; What objection 
can any man rationally entertain to a similar mode of worship? If 
he could guard his disciples against being led astray, by long pray- 
ers, delivered by hypocrites at the corners of the streets, to be seen 
of men; Why should we bestow our admiration upon these novel 
and unscriptural exhibitions of human ingenuity? If such language 
as this, fell from his blessed lips, " But thou, when thou prayest. 
enter into thy closet; and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy 
Father, which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secrete 
shall reward thee openly;" Why cannot we be influenced, by an 
injunction enforced by his personal practice, rather than make our 
own thoughts and petitions the only medium and directory for the 
publick devotion of others? 

I have already, Brethren, given you to understand, that it was re- 
determination to be very direct and explicit, and this determination 
will be adhered to in the further prosecution of a subject not yet ex- 
hausted. But permit me to assure you, that I speak more in sorrow* 
than in anger, when the solemn convictions of duty compel me to 
raise my feeble voice against those innovations, whose tendency it 
is to sweep away the landmarks of the scriptures, and obscure the 
light of revealed truth. I will not impute intentional errour to those. 
Whose practices I cannot shrink from opposing, but certainly it is 
equally, and even more disastrous, than if it had been deliberately 
and wantonly embraced. May God therefore, of his infinite mercy, 
avert the increasing evils, which it threatens; may he heal the dis- 
sentions, which disturb the peace of Christendom, by ordering the 
steps of every man in the way he should go ; and to Him, with the 
Son and Holy Ghost, shall be ascribed, in the Unity of an ever bles- 
sed Trinity, everlasting praises. Amen. 



44S 



SERMON XII. 

isaiah lxii. 1. 

For ZiorCs sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I will not rest, until the r ighteousness thereof go forthas brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

IT is not too much to assert, that the evidence, produced 
upon the last sabbath, was sufficient to convince all candid and un- 
biassed minds, that from the time of Moses to the period embraced 
by the ministry of Christ, all scripture is decidedly in favour of the 
use of forms of prayer in the publick worship of God. So worship- 
ped the Hebrews in the wilderness. So worshipped the prophets, 
and the Church established at Jerusalem. So worshipped the Holy 
One of Israel, whose example, it might have been thought, would 
prove conclusive upon his followers ; but against whom it has been 
left for modern Christians indirectly to prefer the charge of for- 
mality. 

I must confess to you, that I can regard it in ho other light. If 
we are formalists, simply because we are attached to forms of pray- 
er, more especially to that form, which Christ himself recommend- 
ed and even enjoined ; so must this holy Being share the obloquy ; 
so are we, in point of fact, defending him, when we are employed in 
exonerating ourselves from an unfounded aspersion. A considera- 
tion of itself sufficient to nerve our hearts, and imbolden our speech. 
We know who it was that " esteemed the reproach of Christ great- 
er riches than the treasures of Egypt;" and was this endured in 
mere anticipation of his future advent? How much more should we 
be steadfast and unwavering in our imitation of him, who have 
been counselled by the words of his mouth, and directed by the pu- 
rity and the holiness of his example. If men have nothing more 
substantial to allege to our prejudice ; " Blessed are ye when" they 
" shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of 
evil against you falsely, for my sake." Well may ye " rejoice,, and 
be exceeding srlad: for great i<* your reward in heaven." 



14b" 



Bat 1 have said, that tlTe Apostles were also accustomed to ad 
dress the throne of mercy with precomposed prayers; and where is 
the person that can have the temerity to deny it? Even upon the 
supposition, that the bible was here entirely silent, their characters 
alone would furnish a species of evidence, which no art or ingenui- 
ty could possibly invalidate. For were they not eminently faith = 
ful, and eminently obedient? After the miracle of the resurrection 
had thoroughly convinced them of the divinity and sonship of Christ ; 
were they ever known intentionally to violate his commands; to set 
up their own in opposition to his will ; and justify themselves on the 
pretence of superiour wisdom and sagacity ? The very inquiry, if 
seriously proposed, would be an insult to their memory and a libel 
upon their piet\\ We must cease to admire their holy boldness- in 
the cause of Christ, we must cease to consider them his faithful am-, 
bassadors to the ends of the earth, the moment we admit, that they 
did not pray precisely as he directed them. If it was not hypocrisy, 
that induced them to ask, " Lord, teach us t© pray j" if there was 
no paltering with words in the reply, "When ye pray, say, Our 
Father which art in heaven," and the entertaining of such thoughts 
would be blasphemy; then is it most manifest, that the Apostles 
habituated themselves to this inspired manual of devotion; then 
would it require a miracle to convince me, that these holy men dis- 
regarded the express command of their Master. They,, who could 
" count all things but loss for the excellency of his knowledge.'" 
They, who for hii% and the propagation of his gospel y freely en- 
countered all manner of perils by land and by sea. They, who 
hesitated not to seal with their blood, the testimony they bore to 
the truth: of his doctrines. No, no, such men could not but do, as 
Christ required ; they could not but pray, as he himself had exact- 
ed. Whoever for the sake of a party would gainsay it, would for 
that party gainsay every thing sacred, and every thing divine, 
Upon this consideration alone we may safely determine the tru* 
character of Apostolick prayer, that it was by a form, a form pre- 
scribed by the great Head of the Church, and imposing upon his. 
chosen an obligation, equally coercive with the grand commission* 
to preach and baptize. 

If however it should be imagined, that, in their more publick de- 
votions, a greater latitude was permitted, not merely in relation to 
words,, which no one denies, but even to precedent and principle; 



147 



so that they were authorized to make their own extemporary prayers- 
the leading worship of the sanctuary; To such an imagination, I 
have to object, that it is altogether gratuitous ; that it is warranted 
by no permission given them by Christ; and by no fact appearing 
in the record of their ministry. 

On the contrary, before his crucifixion, they had constantly at- 
tended him in his visits to the temple and the synagogue, in order to 
participate in its service; and after his ascension, those visits were 
so far from being interrupted, that they are continually referred to, 
tt Peter and John," for example, " went up together into the temple 
at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour." And of this temple 
was it written, " My house shall be called the house of prayer?" At 
that very hour, were publick forms of devotion invariably rehearsed t 
You cannot possibly believe, that the Apostles neglected to join in 
them; that they were mute spectators of the scene, neither approve 
ing nor disapproving the service-. The presumption would be more 
violent, than I am able to reconcile with their acknowledged piety 
on the one hand, or their matchless intrepidity on the other. Either 
those prayers were proper, and they piously united their own, with 
the voice of the multitude, or they were improper, and they boldly 
denounced them, as lifeless and insipid forms. But not one word 
of censure can we discover; not one syllable did the Apostles utter, 
in temple or in synagogue, to the prejudice of a precomposed litur- 
gy; not one imputation was cast upon them by the Jews, for either- 
discrediting their worship, or declining to adopt it for their own. 
The conclusion is therefore irresistible, that they both used and ap- 
proved; that "Peter and John went up together into the temple at 
the hour of prayer," with no such objection to prepared formularies, 
as .many of our modern Christians consider unanswerably cogent 
and imperative. 

Not however to confide entirely, upon what may be termed nega= 
tive evidence, I proceed to the positive, and find myself at once re- 
plenished with incontestable proof, that the Apostles employed forms 
in their joint devotions. On their return to K Jerusalem from the 
mount called Olivet, they went up into an upper room," and " all 
continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the 
women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with the brethren." And 
that, this " one accord" was not the mere assent of the mind, to pe- 
titions preferred by a single individual of their number, is obvious 



148 



from the circumstance, that in the fourth chapter of the Acts, two 
of the Apostles, and the company with them, are represented to have 
" lifted up their voice to God with one accord," in a prayer, which 
is there preserved within the compass of seven verses, and that 
must necessarily have been previously made known and explained 
to the whole assembly. So likewise in the case of Joseph and 
Matthias, the Apostles, with one hundred and twenty disciples, 
" prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all 
men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take 
part of this ministry and Apostleship, from which Judas by trans - 
gression fell, that he might go to his own place." 

How plainly then does the record disclose, by the introduction 
of these forms, what reason itself would teach, that they were ena- 
bled to lift up their voices simultaneously, owing to the fact of their 
having premeditated prayers to offer. Upon no other principle can 
we account for the vocal union, unless we resort to the immediate 
interference of the Spirit, and then it would only enhance the 
value of the authority in favour of forms. It would only prove, 
that upon sudden and unprepared emergencies, they were miracuf 
lously furnished by the intervention of the Almighty himself 

There is besides a remarkable difference in the account given 
by the inspired writer, between the praying and the preaching of 
the Apostles, which strongly confirms the doctrine 1 am endeavour* 
ing to maintain. When they with other Christians assembled for 
devotional exercises the plural pronoun invariably appears. It is 
not said that Peter, or James, or John, or either of their brethren 
lifted up his voice and prayed in the name of all. But the 
language is, "they prayed;" "these all continued with one accord 
in prayer and supplication ;" " they lifted up their voice to God 
with one accord." The moment however that preaching com- 
menced, the style is changed, and " Peter, standing up with the 
eleven, lifted up his voice and said." On another occasion, " when 
Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why 
marvel ye at this ? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by 
our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?" And 
so of every other recorded sermon, no matter how many Apostles 
were present, one only is reported to have addressed it to the 
people, or the narrative is so constructed, as to make it evident, 
that they never united their voices in the delivery of a long pro- 
tracted discourse. 



149 



The distinction is still more to the purpose, when the case of the 
disciples or congregation of believers is embraced. For they did 
not simply listen to prayers ; u they lifted up their voice to God 
with one accord.'" But at the same time, they listened to preaching. 
And why ? What reason can be assigned for this diversity ? Surely,, 
Brethren, ye can be at no loss to anticipate the only fair construc- 
tion. Prayers were previously known, and therefore they could 
join in them, with voice as well as with heart. Sermons were un- 
known, were delivered for their instruction, and therefore they 
could only receive them into honest and good hearts, that they 
might bring forth fruit unto holiness. 

Let me also advert to another circumstance peculiarly impres= 
sive. Often is it mentioned, that, when the Apostles and disciples 
were together, they united in publick devotion. But when Paul 
was at Athens, and "certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and 
of the Stoicks encountered him," he could stand up in the midst of 
Mars hill, and pronounce the well known discourse, opening in this 
manner, " Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are 
too superstitious." And still, there was no prayer, no asking of 
the assembly to worship God. If Paul had been accustomed to 
the extemporaneous kind, he could certainly have prayed for them, 
and they could and would have listened, as they did listen to his 
preaching. But there were no believers among them, they knew 
not how to call upon God, and for this reason he refrained from 
prayer ; it would not have been publick worship ; extemporary effu- 
sions were not then in vogue ; and neither at this place, nor at any 
other, does he appear to have audibly prayed, unless there were 
some in the congregation, who were antecedently prepared to min- 
gle their voices with his own. 

Tell me not then, that the Apostles were averse to precomposed 
forms. If their practice had been similar to that of many of our 
modern missionaries, they would have always commenced their 
religious solemnities with prayer, whether it was known to the 
congregation or not, whether they had fellow worshippers or not. 

I know very well the tenour of the argument advanced by our 
opponents. I have repeatedly heard it pronounced, with an air of 
triumph and exultation, worthy of a better cause, worthy of some- 
thing more candid and ingenuous. It is this. Do you think, that 
the Apostles prayed with a book? Do you think, that, when Paul 



150 



kneeled down, with the disciples, upon the sea shore at Tyre, and 
prayed, he held a book in his hand? 

I confess indeed, that the objection is conclusive and unanswera- 
ble, with such as will neither investigate nor determine for them- 
selves. But to those, who prefer reason to ridicule, the inquiries 
will be far more to the purpose, Did not the Apostles possess the 
faculty of memory? Could they not, as easily as ourselves, repeat 
from memory, the prayer of our Lord? We know that they did 
repeat it, and if the subject was not too serious, we might retort 
upon our dissenting brethren; Do you think, that the Apostles re- 
hearsed it from a book ? Do you think that as often as he used it, 
St. Paul held a book in his hand? 

The truth is, that the argument is entirely unworthy of Chris- 
tians. In the modern acceptation, there were no books at that time. 
Until long centuries after, the art of printing was unknown. Man- 
uscripts alone were employed. The volume of inspiration itself 
was termed the scripture or the scriptures. And did not Christ 
require his disciples to "search the scriptures?" Did they not 
conform to the injunction, and address it to others? Did not Philip 
read from the scripture, in his interview with the eunuch, although 
he was before perfectly acquainted with its contents? 

And precisely thus with liturgies. They also were written out, 
and set in order. They occupied a place in the Jewish temple and 
synagogues. The devotional psalms of David, whether of prayer 
or of praise, it will not be denied, were therein daily rehearsed, 
and not unseldom in the presence of Christ, and his disciples. 
Why then all this contumely, this contemptuous sneering at books, 
now so easily obtained, and so admirably adapted to the uses of 
publick worship? Why in particular, are not the questions tri- 
umphantly asked ? Do you think that the Apostles sang from a hymn 
book ? Do you think, that, " at midnight, when Paul and Silas prayed, 
and sang praises unto God," they held hymn books in their hands ? 

But enough of an objection more plausible than wise, more cal- 
culated to delude than to instruct. While printed psalms and Ivymns 
are to be found in the seceding Churches, while they are mostly 
constructed in the language of supplication, opposition from that 
quarter, to our book of common prayer, comes with an ill grace, 
and is chiefly remarkable for the inconsistency betrayed by the in* 
dividuals, who raise it. 



151 



The only remaining testimony, to which I have to call your at- 
tention upon the subject before us, is the practice of the primitive 
Christians. During the lives of the Apostles^ they of course con- 
formed to their example, as has been already sufficiently proved, 
and ever after, there was no departure from the principle divinely 
established. They used the prayer of our Lord. From a large 
number of authorities in my possession, I will present you with 
a few from the most distinguished Authors. Tertullian says, 
"•'The Son taught us to pray, Our Father, which art in heaven.'" 5 
He does not apprehend himself liable to the charge of formality, 
when he asserts, u Our Lord gave his new disciples of the new tes- 
tament, anew form of prayer;" nor especially, when he terms it y 
v The prayer appointed by law," and " the ordinary prayer, which 
is to be said before our other prayers; and upon which, as a foun- 
dation, our other prayers are to be built." Cyprian observes, 
" Christ himself gave us a form of prayer, and commanded us to 
use it; because when we speak to the Father in the Son's words, 
we shall be more easily heard." But no one has expressed himself 
more explicitly and emphatically, than the pious and venerable 
Augustin, universally esteemed by catholick and protestant 
Speaking of the Lord's prayer, these are his words, u Our Saviour 
gave it to the Apostles, to the intent that they should use it; he 
taught it his disciples himself, and by them he taught it us; he 
dictated it to us, as a lawyer would put words in his client's mouth/' 
and again " it is necessary for all." He even declares in the most 
solemn manner, that " we cannot be God's children unless we 
use it." 

So true it is therefore, Brethren, that the primitive Christians 
recognised this inspired form, as having been the foundation and 
guide, the manual of Apostolick devotion, and that they also re- 
garded it as peremptorily enjoined upon their personal adoption. 
And this not merely in private, but in publick worship, for which 
the words of the prayer are indeed most suitable ; it being drawn 
up in the plural number^ and so, designed to be uttered, where two 
ar three are gathered together in the name of Christ. 

Consider then, that, if they are thus clearly and indisputably 
proved to have repeated one form, in the course of their publick 
service, no objection would be likely to exist against the rehearsal 
of another and another; that the approbation of their Lord, being 



152 



fully ascertained in one instance, they would not be slow to believe 
it a sufficient warrant and pattern, or as Tertullian calls it, a foun- 
dation for their other prayers. Accordingly we find, from the 
unanimous testimony of all antiquity, that they were not more 
addicted to " singing and making melody in" their " hearts to the 
Lord," with precomposed " psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs," 
than they were to supplicating his mercy and forgiveness, his grace 
and heavenly benediction, with precomposed prayers, He who 
could doubt this, might as well doubt^ that there were such men as 
Justin Martyr and Origen, the former of whom speaks of u Com- 
mon Prayer," and the latter of "constituted prayers;" might as 
well doubt, that Cyril was bishop of Jerusalem, at the middle of 
the fourth century, and contend that he never made a commentary 
upon the liturgy ascribed to the Apostle James, when that com- 
mentary is still extant, and Jerome assures us, that he wrote it in 
his younger years. 

My limits will only permit me to add, that many liturgies were 
early composed, and introduced into the primitive Church. Some 
of them were attributed to the Apostles, as those of Peter, and 
James, and one to the evangelist Mark. Others were anonymous, 
as those of Rome and Alexandria, and others were known to have 
been written by Basil, Chrysostom, and Ambrose. There is indeed 
no one fact in ecclesiastical history susceptible of stronger proof, 
than the universal prevalence of precomposed forms of prayer 
from the earliest times. No other publick worship obtained. No 
other has been alluded to, by the writers, who flourished in the first 
centuries of the Christian era. And are we accustomed to pro- 
nounce them, the best and purest ages of the Church, the ages 
most distinguished for heartfelt piety, for holy obedience, and un- 
affected renunciation of the world, and the fashion thereof? How 
justly may we infer, that those prayers, instead of being gradually 
introduced to the exclusion of such, as were unpremeditated and 
extemporary; that those prayers were in strict accordance with 
the worship observed by the Apostles, and therefore sanctioned by 
the unerring wisdom of God. 

It is also worthy of remark, that the ancient Syrian Church dis- 
covered in India by Dr. Buchanan, and which, you will remember, 
had no intercourse with the western Christians, for thirteen hun- 
dred years from the Apostolick age, was utterly ignorant of ex^ 



153 



temporary prayers, and possessed a liturgy, believed by its bishop, 
to have been coeval with its origin. "Here," says the missionary, 
" as in all Churches in a state of decline, there is too much formal- 
ity in the worship. But they have the bible and a scriptural liturgy; 
and these will save a Church in the worst of times." 

We may indeed challenge our opponents to produce one single 
instance of publick worship, celebrated in a different manner, an- 
teriour to the reformation in Germany and Switzerland. By whom 
extemporary prayers were there introduced, I am unable to deter- 
mine. It was not by the reformer Calvin, for in a letter to the Duke 
of Somerset, Lord Protector of England, written in the year fifteen 
hundred and forty nine, he was evidently opposed to such an inno- 
vation> and says, " I do highly approve, that there should be a cer- 
tain form of prayer and ecclesiastical rites. From which it should 
not be lawful for the pastors themselves to discede. — First, That 
provision may be made for some people's ignorance and unskilful- 
ness. — Second, That the consent of all Churches amongst them- 
selves may the more plainly appear.— Third, That order may be 
taken against the desultory levity of such, who delight in innova- 
tions. — Thus there ought to be an established catechism, an estab- 
lished administration of sacraments, (publicam item precum formu- 
lam) as also a publick form of prayer." 

The old historian Fuller inserts the original words, with the re- 
mark, that they " deserve our translation and observation," and I 
know not that Calvin ever varied his sentiments. They are such 
as do credit to his judgment and sagacity, and if widely circulated 
might possibly relieve us from much of the odium, so profusely 
lavished upon our service, by the very description of innovators, 
whom he so freely condemns." 

The origin of extemporary prayers in England is better under- 
stood. They were contrived by popish emissaries disguised in the 
garb of protestantism, and pretending the utmost abhorrence of 
what they stigmatized, as the corruptions of popery still existing in 
the English Church. The object was to produce division and dis- 
sention, as the surest mode of bringing the reformed religion into 
disrepute, and regaining the ascendency once enjoyed by the Roman 
pontiff. For this purpose among other things, they were loud in 
thek invectives against the liturgy; they vilified it, as a new edi- 
tion of the ma« book, and insisted upon its being wholly abandon- 

W 



154 



ed, by such as were desirous of praying under the immediate influ- 
ence of the Spirit of God. 

Unhappily they were but too successful in their efforts. They 
impaired the unity, although they could not destroy the existence 
of the true Church of God. Numbers were attracted by the flu= 
ency and apparent devotion, with which these new-fangled prayers 
were uttered j they did not hesitate to ascribe them to the direct 
agency of the Holy Spirit; and soon began to manifest a dislike to 
the service of the Church, which finally terminated in irreconcila- 
ble hatred and disgust. 

Delighted with the success of their first enterprise, England was 
destined to be thoroughly inundated with these counterfeit reform- 
ers ; they penetrated through all parts of the country ; and wherever 
they appeared new sects sprung up with mushroom precocity, dif* 
fering widely on many, doctrinal points, and conspiring in nothing 
else but a determination to eradicate the artfully assumed relicks 
of popery. Against all forms of devotion they were particularly 
exasperated, and would by no means tolerate their feigned mum- 
mery. Extemporary prayer was the nucleus round which these 
incongruous materials could gather with one accord. And such 
was its origin in the land of our ancestors. A few of its abetters 
were discovered, as Cumming, Heth, and others; their real charac- 
ter was ascertained; their disguised protestantism proved; and 
their actual devotion to papacy unmasked. But the larger number 
escaped, they sowed the seeds of innumerable heresies and schisms, 
and persuaded their deluded followers,. that they and they only were 
the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. 

But no longer to dwell upon a subject so painful in the retrospect* 
and yet,, as it is to be feared so little calculated to conciliate the 
wanderer, and bring him back to the fold from which he has Stray- 
ed ; I prefer to congratulate you, upon the distinguished honour we 
enjoy, through adherence to those precomposed forms of worship, 
in whose favour such a cloud of witnesses has been adduced. And 
who I ask is best entitled to determine the manner in which the 
Supreme Being is to be worshipped? Is it the Creator himself, or 
the man .he has formed? The object to be adored, or the person 
required to adore? The Infinite and Omniscient, who -can alone- 
comprehend his own glory, or the finite and ignorant, from whom 
its brightest effulgence is veiled by interposing clouds and dark- 



155 



ness ? The far searching Spirit, who can read the inmost thoughts 
of the heart; who can detect at a glance its wandering affections, 
and alone recall and fasten them upon his matchless perfections^ 
or the purblind, wretched mortal, that is often at a loss to fathom 
his own spirit, that knows nothing as he ought to know it, and that 
left to himself is emphatically the spoiled child of vanity and self 
delusion ? Who I repeat is best entitled to determine ? 

Most clearly, Brethren, there can be no room for hesitancy in 
the reply. Nor ought there to be any in the alacrity, with which 
©bedience should be rendered. When God speaks, it is not for man 
to raise his feeble voice and puny strength in opposition. It is for 
him to bow the soul and bend the will, to extinguish self and pluck 
out the evil heart of unbelief. And that he has spoken, plainly and 
directly spoken, is as evident as the day, and as clear as the sun in 
the heavens. On no other principle would Moses, in the old tes- 
tament, have prepared his song of triumph, and recorded his in- 
spired prayers for deliverance; would David have indited his 
psalmody, and joined it to the spirit stirring worship of Israel, Oil 
no other principle would Jesus, in the new, have imbodied his form 
of prayer; would the Apostles and primitive Christians have trea- 
sured it up in the greenest spot of their remembrance. But all 
these things, as Paul says upon a different theme, " All these things'" 
have «* happened unto" us « for ensamples i and they are written 
for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 
Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." 
If we have a right to depart from them, by substituting a novel and 
unpremeditated mode of worshipping God; we are equally at lib- 
erty to follow our own fancy, in rejecting all the remaining rites 
and institutions of the gospel ; we are bound by nothing but our 
own pleasure, and even this may vibrate backwards and forwards^ 
as policy serves, and capricious humours predominate. One while 
inclining us to follow after, and at another to vary from the example 
of Christ. 

But if this doctrine be false, this irresponsible state be the crea- 
ture of our own imagination, if baptism for instance be binding, and 
the supper of the Lord binding; so in publick worship must forms 
of prayer be construed with the same rigour, and exact the same 
obedience. The expressions, " Repent and be baptized," "Do this 



156 



in remembrance of me," are no more peremptory than, " When ye 
pray say." 

I can neither understand nor approve the nice distinctions so 
often attempted to be drawn. There is even prevailing with many 
Christians an evident anxiety to ascertain, how far a person may 
venture to dissent from the counsels of God, without involving the 
soul in everlasting ruin. It is not meant, that they make this a 
question, under the conviction of having already been guilty of 
such dissent. But amid numerous conflicting opinions, they have 
acquired the habit of resting satisfied with their own, not upon the 
principle of its being clearly warranted by the scriptures ; but be- 
cause without troubling themselves to make a diligent and laborious 
investigation, they have settled the matter in their own minds, that 
if they are wrong, the deviation must be too trifling and unimpor* 
tant to affect their future interests. 

Nothing therefore is more common, than the idea of there being 
different routes to heaven. Nothing is deemed more uncharitable,, 
than to insinuate, that an unbaptized adult, or a non-communicating 
adult is placed in an imminently perilous and critical condition ; 
although the language of the bible is, " Except a man be born of 
water, and of the Spirit, lie cannot enter into the kingdom of God ft 
and again, " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink 
his blood ye have no life in you." 

But for my own part, Brethren, I am decidedly opposed to this 
summary species of casuistry, this unscriptural method of dis- 
posing of cases of conscience, and of opening several doors and 
avenues to heaven ; when there is but one strait gate and one nar- 
row way. They may accord with the divinity of the times; but 
they do not accord with the divinity of the bible, and therefore they 
are not to my mind ; therefore although my own judgment makes 
every allowance for modal errours in others, and my convictions 
are, that many of the unbaptized and non-communicating will here-* 
after be found among the saints of the Most High; yet would I not 
recommend any to confide in that judgment, or to trust in those 
convictions. My doctrine and advice are rather of this nature; 
"Hear the word of the Lord;" "Read, mark, learn, and inwardly 
digest" the holy scriptures. They are able to make you wise unto 
salvation, and if ye will but adopt this course, neither turning to 
the right hand nor to the left, with the view of indulging in what 



157 



are called trivial errours, neither making flesh your arm nor de« 
signedly suffering your hearts to depart in one single particular 
from the Lord ; if ye will do this, ye cannot fail of making your 
calling and election sure. 

With such dispositions, such intense anxiety to be found blame- 
less in all things, such pious and determined resolutions to stand 
perfect and complete in all the will of God; if ye be not saved, I 
know not who will. There may be errours, but they will be errours 
of the judgment and not of the heart. And for these, no Christian, 
let him belong to Greek or Roman Church, to our own or any de- 
nomination confessing the fundamental doctrines of the cross, will 
be liable to endure the severity of God's displeasure. I speak with 
confidence, because I have exacted all that God exacts. I have re- 
quired of every man to be fully and deliberately, and not capricious- 
ly and hastily persuaded in his own mind. And may our heavenly 
Father, in the multitude of his mercies, bring all these things to 
pass, with us his dependant creatures; may we truly love and hon- 
our, and rightly worship and serve him; may our heads be wise, 
our hearts pure, our consciences without offence, and our immortal 
souls duly prepared to enter into the embraces of his everlasting 
love ; and to Him, with the Son and Holy Ghost, three persons and 
one God, shall be ascribed all praise, and glory, and dominion, and 
power, world without end. Amen. 



SERMON XIII. 

isaiah lxii. 1. 

For ZiorCs sake will I not hold my 'peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness , 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

IN the remarks hitherto made upon the subject of publick 
forms of prayer, I have almost exclusively confined myself to their 
vindication upon the ground of authority. I have shown you, what 



158 



the scriptures have said, what prophets and Apostles, with Christ 
our Saviour have practised, what primitive Christians and their suc- 
cessors to the sixteenth century were unanimous in adopting, with 
all the ardour of sincere devotion, and all the obedience of trium- 
phant faith. My own opinion is, that in all such cases, we are to 
submit our own judgment unreservedly to the clear intimations of 
the sacred volume. We are to exercise our reason in searching 
them out, but having made the discovery, reason must bow with 
reverence to the teachings of the holy Spirit. No improvements are 
to be suggested, no changes are to be advised or attempted. What 
was true in Christianity eighteen hundred years ago is true at this 
moment. What mode of worship was then beft adapted to propi- 
tiate the mercy and favour of God, still maintains the pre-eminence, 
and is not to be rejected in deference to the inventions of men, or 
in subserviency to the maxims of worldly popularity. 

1 am not for having the gospel and its institutions veered about to 
every point of the compass, just as the breath of the multitude in- 
clines, and as it may be found in human apprehension expedient to 
yield to their caprice, and harmonize with their perpetually varying 
prejudices. But what say the scriptures? What examples are by 
them recorded for our instruction ? These are questions which weigh? 
with me infinitely more than the prepossessions of my fellow men, 
I will honour and respect their opinions on all other subjects, but 
when they come in contact with the words of truth and soberness, 
the voice of God is with me of incalculably greater value and au- 
thority, than the voice of the people. They may extol extempo 
raneous publick prayers. An imposing majority of their number 
in this western world may be decidedly in their favour, but so 
long as the bible refuses to give them the slightest countenance, 
I will prefer the Church, that orders her worship in accordance with 
the bible ; I will believe, that precomposed forms of prayer are far 
better calculated to preserve the excellency and the beauty of 
holiness. 

For what is the object of publick worship ? Is it to hear another 
praise the Lord? To hear him confess, that universal man is guilty 
in the sight of heaven, and in absolute need of the quickening influ- 
ence of converting and sustaining grace? To hear him invoke the 
divine blessing, and confide in the fervency of his intercessions 
%lone? Is it to admire the fluency of his delivery, the copiousne^ 



of his rhetorick, the graceful ease and measured cadence of his pe- 
riods ? If this be publick worship, I readily subscribe to the superi- 
ority of that system, which authorizes one to pray for all, and that 
affords him so admirable an opportunity to build up a reputation for 
shining talents and eloquent appeals to God. 

With our venerable formularies, we can make no such preten'- 
sions, nor attract the eulogy of one applauding tongue. But if it be 
publick worship for all hearts and lips to praise and pray, to lift up 
the voice with oue accord, and either shout hosannas, or implore the 
remission of unnumbered sins ; then must that form of sound words 
be greatly preferable, which all may understand, and in which all 
may cordially unite. We can come together, conscious of what we 
are about to utter, and depending on no one to select the language 
appropriate to the condition and feelings of the bleeding heart. There 
is no weighing of petitions before they can be personally employed; 
no tax upon the understanding to determine whether they be right 
or wrong ; no effort of the mind to keep pace with the affections in 
their projected flight to the throne of grace. On the part of the de- 
vout Christian already have the words been carefully perused, and 
the petitions deliberately approved. The soul is therefore at liber- 
ty to concentrate all its powers in elevating the heart to Him, who 
requires its liveliest devotion; the heart, without which all our 
prayers are vain, and all our expectations of divine favour excess- 
ively idle and presumptuous. 

I am aware indeed of the vulgar errour, I know how generally 
the opinion prevails, that unpremeditated effusions are alone cor- 
dial and sincere. But with what propriety, it would require a wiser 
head than mine to comprehend, whether it applies to the speaker or 
the hearer: The speaker, whose mind must necessarily be in some 
measure employed in the conception of thoughts and the choice of 
words : The hearer, who before he can unite must rapidly perform 
five distinct intellectual acts. He must first hear, then understand, 
then judge, then approve, and then pray. 

Whereas in forms of prayer, the affections are left free and un- 
embarrassed. They are not disturbed or neutralized by the simul- 
taneous inventions and operations of the head. They can rise on 
strong, elastick wing, and play x as it were, around the throne of 
mercy. There is no such hinderance upon the emotions of love and 
.gratitude, but they may be there: none upon desire and admiration. 



4 



160 



but they may be riveted with intense and eager delight upon the 
divine perfections. Let men therefore indulge what fancies they 
please, to me it is evident, that if they have no heart to pray with 
such words as the Holy Ghost teaches, they can have none to lift 
up to God with words of their own. 

Here also, Brethren, it will be proper to remind you of another 
and a very important advantage resulting from the use of forms of 
prayer. They are more likely to ensure the union of all hearts m. 
publick worship. Nothing indeed can effect this, where there is no 
previous inclination or desire to praise and pray. But among those, 
"who for these purposes appear in the courts of the Lord's house, it 
is not to be denied, that a perfect knowledge of the language and 
sentiments to be addressed to God peculiarly promotes the harmony 
of feeling, so desirable in devotions professing to be general and 
united. t 

Under such circumstances, no one has cause to fear lest the offi- 
ciating minister should employ ill chosen words, or prefer improper 
petitions; lest he should express himself with irreverent familiarity, 
or indulge in offensive doctrinal points, or even give way to person- 
al resentments and antipathies. By precomposed liturgies, all these 
things are avoided. The aspirations of the devout worshipper are 
neither perplexed, nor entirely defeated. Whatever he may think 
of the sermon, however he may lament its errours and deficiencies; 
on retiring to his home, he can at least please himself with these 
reflections; I haie this day offered appropriate homage to the God 
that made me, and whom I am bound to serve ; I have praised and 
magnified the Lord ; I have thanked him for his numerous blessings ; 
at his footstool, I have publickly confessed my sins, and acknowl- 
edged the imperfection attending my best services ; I have implored 
their pardon and forgiveness ; I have sought for new and more co- 
pious streams of grace; I have disposed my spirit for their reception, 
by the excellency of my words, and the sincerity and earnestness, 
with which they have been pronounced. 

Bat when extemporary prayers are offered, if they really consti 
tute publick worship, how often have the congregation been com- 
pelled to pray in terms, as foreign to their intentions as diametric- 
ally opposed to the character of true devotion. How often have ex- 
pressions been put in their mouths, which their souls hove utterly 
loathed and abhorred. How often have they been made to adopt 



* 



161 



all the strange fancies and heterodox sentiments of some wild en- 
thusiast, craving of God, as blessings, what they would prefer to 
deprecate, as curses. How often been obliged to yield a publick 
assent to all the enmities of their leader, and to be dragged before 
the throne of love using prayers imbittered by malice and defiled 
with imprecations. How often been represented through one or- 
gan of devotion soliciting, or returning thanks for, the precise gifts, 
from which another is soon destined to make them implore deliv- 
erance. 

Yes, Brethren, these are incidents by no means uncommon, par- 
. ticularly in seasons of strong excitement, whether religious or po- 
litical. Ministers are men of like passions with yourselves, and 
when left to their own discretion, out of the abundance of the heart 
the mouth will speak, causing the hearer, in the house of God, to 
appear before him, thinking as they think, and praying as they 
pray. So far from these remarks being the creation of fancy, re- 
peatedly have I heard the Christian denouncing the prayer of his 
pastor; at one time lamenting its impropriety, and at another shock- 
ed by its asperity. And all this, without imagining it to have been 
his own prayer, the prayer which he countenanced by his presence^ 
and in which he publickly professed to unite, by rising up in the 
attitude of devotion. But let me tell him, it either was his own, and 
that of the congregation, who ostensibly gave it their assent, or else 
the principal object for which they were assembled, the object of 
joining in the publick worship of God, was completely frustrated* 
And is that mode of conducting the service to be preferred by be- 
lievers in Christ, which exposes them to this predicament; which 
makes them for the time passive instruments in the mouth of one 
man ; and to the eye at least fervently engaged in petitions which 
from their very souls they detest? 

Not such were the prayers, which the Apostles and primitive 
Christians used with one accord. No such obstacles impeded the 
lifting up of their united voices, and wherever they do exist, wherever 
the fault, instead of being chargeable to the heart, is to be attributed 
to the unwarrantable collocation of words and ideas, then does pub- 
lick worship in that instance become a solemn farce, a presumptuous 
trifling with Almighty God; with Him, who requires us not to be 
*ash with our mouths, nor hasty in uttering any thing before him. 
And vet, we are not afraid of regularly placing ourselves in a situa- 

X 



m 

tion, where We are' liable to be rash with the mouth, and hasty with 
the heart of another, over whom we have no control, and whose 
most glaring extravagancies are sanctioned by our seeming acqui- 
escence. 

I know not, Brethren, how these things may affect your minds; 
but of this I am sure, that while our forms of worship are perfectly 
pure and unobjectionable, and nothing is demanded to make them 
acceptable unto God, but a true state of the heart and its affections; 
it is beyond all doubt, that the pious and godly among our dissent- 
ing brethren are frequently made to pray, as opposite to their real 
intentions as light is opposite to darkness ; made to prefer petitions 
at different times, flagrantly inconsistent the one with the other, pe- 
titions which no finite being could possibly reconcile with sincere 
devotion y and which the Infinite alone has wisdom sufficient to sep - 
arate, and either accept or reject, as they would have them accepted 
or rejected. 

And here I am naturally led by the subject to advert to a con- 
sideration rarely or never permitted to occupy the minds of our fel- 
low Christians. They can declaim with wonderful facility against 
our forms of prayer, and however compelled to acknowledge the 
excellency of their spirit, can loudly condemn the supposed corrup- 
tion, which must attend upon their practice ; but at the same time* 
how lamentably ignorant, do they appear to be, that if their objec- 
tions and reproaches are just, they themselves are in a tenfold greater 
degree the subjects of corruption. For when you come to analyze- 
their prayers, w T hat are they in reality but forms ? With the speaker 
they may be unpremeditated, and conceived at the moment; but 
what have the congregation to do with them before they escape his? 
lips? What part of them is to be imputed to their immediate con- 
ceptions ? They cannot speak with his mouth, much less can they 
in a state of silence transfer their thoughts to his mind. And the 
consequence is, that, so far as they are concerned, a form is imposed 
upon their observance, from which there is no appearand with which 
they must pray, or else entirely refrain from their incumbent duty, 

If there be any errour in this statement,. I have not the capacity 
to detect it. In order for the prayers of any assembly to be truly 
extemporaneous, they must necessarily spring up in the mind, and 
be uttered by the voice of each individual worshipper. Prayers, 
composed of words that are spoken, are no less forms to such as usa 



W3 



\liem after their delivery, than are prayers previously -drawn up 
and committed to the press ; while the disadvantages attending them 
are infinitely greater than those imagined to exist with our own. 
There is no time allowed to judge of them with deliberation and care, 
no time to detect their slight, and none to object to their weighty 
errours. But precisely as spoken are they prescribed upon all who 
hear. The very men, who would not sign an important publick 
address to an earthly ruler, without carefully perusing its contents, 
have no conscientious scruples in permitting themselves to be in- 
cluded in an equally publick and far more important address to the 
sovereign Ruler of heaven and earth, without being apprized of a 
single sentence designed to be employed. 

Can this be right? Are they who follow such sudden, evanes- 
cent, and often ungracious forms, justified in turning to ridicule, 
and proclaiming as corrupt, formularies of devotion that have stood 
the test of ages, and commanded the admiration of the world? Are 
they moreover to be branded as formalists, who come into the dread 
presence of God with a clear understanding of every word they 
are about to utter; who have cautiously examined every petition, 
and been able to discover nothing but what their heads approve,, 
and their hearts are desirous to adopt? I can never subscribe to 
such sentiments. However popular, they savour too much of the 
wisdom of this world, and are in no little danger of being regarded 
as foolishness with God. Others may worship him, with forms of 
which they have no knowledge ; but for me I will adhere to those, 
which are as familiar to my mind, as is the nature of the spiritual 
wants they were intended to supply. 

Nor, in arriving at this determination, have I overlooked another, 
and a very material reason* Precomposed forms of prayer har- 
monize with precomposed forms of praise. Both were used in the 
Jewish temple and synagogue, and in addition to what has been 
elsewhere suggested, we may be confident, that both were directed 
to be transferred to the Christian Church from the well known 
declaration of Paul, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray 
with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will 
sing with the understanding also." A declaration, that clearly ascer- 
tains the two prominent qualifications of publick prayer and praise. 
The first, that they must come warm from the heart, and the second, 
that they must be clothed with words, upon, which the mind has 
been enabled to exercise its judgment. 



164 



No difference whatever between the two kinds of devotion has 
been intimated by the Apostle. The expressions applied to the one, 
are as emphatically applied to the other. And are we obliged to use 
forms in singing the high praises of our God? Is this of invincible 
necessity, inasmuch as the Spirit refuses the gift of extemporane- 
ous metre? And do our opponents admit in principle and in prac- 
tice, that it is far from impossible to conduct this part of divine 
worship in an acceptable manner, notwithstanding its precomposed 
character? How extremely preposterous to make a distinction 
where Paul hath made none. How strangely inconsistent to cavil 
at written forms of prayer, when.they profess to be almost divinely 
inspired, as with prepared hymns, they are found combining their 
voices in melodious praise. Surely if God loathes a form in the 
one case, he must loathe it in the other. On the contrary, if he has 
made it absolutely indispensable in singing, he cannot but prefer it 
in praying with the Spirit. I can perceive no one plausible ground 
for the variance, and am constrained to believe, that were it prac- 
ticable for a congregation to sing extempore, we should soon find, 
that the spiritual songs already composed would be discarded by 
the various sectaries with disgust, and condemned as imposing too 
great a restraint upon a free spirit, and as fit only to be recited by 
the lukewarm and indifferent. 

Such we know to be the language unhesitatingly applied to our 
prayers, and it would be the same with our psalms and hymns* 
They only escape because their nature is incorrigible ; they will 
not endure the metamorphosis, which has been fastened upon the 
kindred office of devotion; and therefore if the example of Paul 
is rejected in prayer, he is from necessity, it is to be feared rather 
than choice, permitted to be imitated in singing with the spirit, and 
with the understanding. 

Recollect also that our fellow Christians can readily tune their 
voices with their hearts to sing repeatedly the same devotional 
hymn. They do not on this account imagine it to be the less 
pleasing to the divine ear, nor do the^ rack their inventions to 
come before him with an ever varied song of praise. But the mo- 
ment their attention is turned to prayer, then indeed is the same 
stated form most violently assailed, then does it become intolerably 
lifeless and dull to pray sabbath after sabbath, with no other change 
than that supplied by a few collects adapted to the course of the 
ecclesiastical year. 



165 



I cannot learn that the disciples of Christ were thus grievously 
offended, when directed by him to lift up their hearts day by day 
to their Father in heaven according to a certain form, although that 
form was extremely comprehensive and brief. But in the opinion 
of many, the favour of the Almighty at this period materially de- 
pends upon the dexterity, with which it can be invoked with ever 
new and changing prayers. No matter if the spiritual necessities 
of the people are always the same. No matter if God has declared, 
that he is apprized of them, before they are sought to be relieved : 
still our devotions must be mutable, or they can never avail with 
Him, who is immutable; still there is such a wide distinction be- 
tween hymns and prayers, that while the former may be success- 
fully repeated every day of our lives, the repetition of the latter is 
offensive and odious ; they must be new every morning. 

And here I must confess to you, that if the immaculate Jehovah 
were precisely such a being as is described, so easily caught by the 
rhetorick of words, and pleased with novelty, it would indeed ensure 
our condemnation, in the day of judgment, should we persist in our 
established mode of worship. Far better would it be to discard it 
at the instance of our wiser brethren, and conform to their stand- 
ard, although it were even more variable than the wind. Only, we 
should seek to improve it, by constantly changing our hymns, as 
well as our prayers. 

But then the misfortune is, that they have no arguments to con- 
vince our understanding, and no authority with which to control 
our judgment: None from reason, and none from scripture. Qur 
God is not as they would represent him. He requires truth in the 
inward parts, and instead of laboured changes in the expression of 
prayer, he demands familiarity with prayer itself. What may grat- 
ify the hearer, in extemporaneous addresses, is by no means certain 
of gratifying him. Our fancies may be amused, and our admira- 
tion of the speaker's talents highly wrought; but heartfelt devo- 
tion is with God the standard of excellence, and the measure of 
his grace. Give me this, and I am content with our incomparable 
liturgy; I will not despair of being finally accepted of our Father 
in heaven, owing to the absence of variable words, and unpremedi- 
tated thoughts. 

Neither am 1 to be deterred from using it, in virtue of another 
formidable, objection, which relates to the responses made by our 



166 



congregations : Responses, that are not ouly freely condemned with 
the residue of the worship, but are particularly implicated as obvi* 
ous violations of the inspired command, " When ye pray, use not 
vain repetitions, as the heathen do : for they think that they shall 
be heard for their much speaking." Since you must allow me to 
ask, if penitential expressions, extracted with reverence from the 
scriptures, can under any circumstances of sincere devotion be 
justly considered vain? Is it not rather the unmeaning and un- 
measured employment of Lord, Lord ? Is it not rather long and 
tedious prayer, ever reiterating the same idea in different words, 
and perhaps preaching to the Father of lights the knowledge of his 
own perfections? 

Taking the Saviour for our guide, you have only to accompany 
him to the garden of Gethsemane, and you may there behold him 
fallen upon his face,' and three several times repeating the well 
known prayer, u O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." And then 
when the multitude were offended at the continued importunity of 
blind JBartimeus; when "many charged him that he should hold 
his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, 
have mercy on me; 1 ' this blessed Being did not reprove him for 
using vain repetitions. It did not once occur to the Saviour of 
sinners, that he had expressed himself in language, either unsuit- 
ed to the occasion, or such as it would be reprehensible to adopt 
in future times, when the broken and contrite heart would plead 
with its Maker, and avail itself of the riches of his grace. He 
rather bestowed unqualified approbation upon his conduct, he re- 
lieved him of his malady, and spoke the words of peace and com^ 
fort to his troubled spirit. 

And so with the condemned responses in the service of the Church. 
Let us only prefer them with the spirit, and with the understanding: 
Let us only appear before God weeping, bearing precious seed, and 
we shall come again rejoicing, whether we use the prayer of the 
gospel, u Jesus, Master, have mercy on us:" or the equally appro- 
priate supplications of the litany, "Good -Lord, deliver us," and 
again, " We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord." The two ex- 
clamations being admirably suited to humbling convictions of guilt, 
and to that now melancholy depravity of our moral powers, which 
>ssimilate« our race to all that is poor, and miserable, and blind. 



16? 



«nd naked. We may easily construct sentences with a more beau- 
tiful dress, and conveying a more melodious sound; but there are 
none, excepting the petitions contained in the prayer of our Lord, 
better calculated to arrest the attention of heaven, and to draw down 
upon our souls the mercy of Him, whose favour is life, and whose 
loving kindness is better than the life itself. 

All the views I am capable of embracing of our Saviour's inter= 
course with his disciples are decidedly in unison with our forms of 
devotion. You have heard, that he never prayed with them extem- 
poraneously. You have heard that he taught them how to pray. 
And why these remarkable variations from the practice of many of 
our modern evangelists? Why, when private devotion is inculca- 
ted, does he say to his disciples individually, "Thou, when thou 
prayest, enter into thy closet ; and when thou hast shut thy door, 
pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which 
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly?" But when that which 
is publick, " If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any 
thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father 
which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered to.' 
gether in my name, there am 1 in the midst of them." From these 
scriptures corroborated by others already adduced, I should think 
that the prayer uttered by one man ought always to be privatej 
and not in the presence of his fellow men, intent upon catching 
the words of his mouth, although it were for the purpose of making 
those words their own. I should think that prayers in publick, 
where two or three, and of course a larger number are gather- 
ed together, ought always to be agreed upon beforehand, by a mu- 
tual understanding of what was to be asked, either committed to 
memory or to paper. Such are the obvious inferences, and since 
there is nothing contradictory throughout the new testament, I am 
bold to affirm, that they are fairly and legitimately drawn, 

But still the question recurs, Why these remarkable variations 
from the practice of many of our modern evangelists I I have al- 
ready assigned several reasons, and am disposed to advance anoth- 
er founded upon this admonition of Christ, " Learn of me ; for I am 
meek and lowly in heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls." 
If daily experience and observation have ever instructed the world 
in any one truth more than another, it is this; the wonderful ten- 
dency of extemporaneous prayers to make men spiritually proud. 
&oactfuL and uncharitable. Numerous exceptions undoubtedly ex- 



165 



ist, and 1 rejoice that they do. I have no such diabolical feelings, 
as to regret, that persons are trained up for heaven, in a different 
communion from that, to which I am so strongly attached. I love 
to contemplate and admire ; I should be glad to be enabled, from on 
high, to rival the now sainted virtues of Doddridge, Watts, and a 
host of other worthies long since fallen asleep in Jesus. But as a 
general rule, it ever has been, and I am apprehensive it ever will be 
found, that these prayers are followed by such results, and are ex- 
ceedingly unfavourable to the growth of that humility and lowliness 
of heart recommended by our Saviour, and perhaps of all graces, 
the most difficult to be successfully cultivated by any Christian. 

On no other principle can I account for the vast amount of scorn 
and contempt, so prodigally lavished upon precomposed prayers, 
Upon no other, resolve the melancholy fact, of there being immense 
numbers of professing believers, who roundly assert, that such as 
pray with a form can never pray with the heart; that fluent extem- 
poraneous prayer is one of the highest gifts of the Spirit ; and that 
we do not practise it, because he is a stranger to our souls. 

God forgive them I I will not so libel the wise and good, the ex- 
cellent of the earth, as to pray, that these persons may prove egre- 
giously mistaken in their estimate of the purest and holiest men. 
upon whom the Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing on his 
wings. But this I must say, that their conduct and their aspersions 
furnish the best commentary, upon the instruction given by Christ 
to his disciples, in relation to private and publick prayer. 

Be it therefore, Brethren, deeply engraven upon our minds, and 
let us ever yield to it a most cheerful obedience, So, whatever man 
may say, shall we secure the approbation of our own consciences, 
and what is of still greater value and importance the approbation of 
our God. So, if life be spared, shall we yet perceive the righteous- 
ness of our Zion to go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a 
lamp that burneth. And when at length our days are numbered, 
and our sands are run, so shall we be admitted into Mount Zion 
above, into that New Jerusalem, where, in the majestick presence 
of the High and Lofty One, will be everlastingly resounded these 
memorable forms of praise, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to 
receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, 
and glory, and blessing and again, " Blessing, and honour, and 
glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and 
unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." A^xeis:. 



169 



SERMON XIV. 

isaiah lxii. 1. 

For ZioR S sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

AS the frequent recital of the text must have rendered it per- 
fectly familiar to the ear, it can scarcely have escaped your obser- 
vation, Brethren, that the prophet has made an obvious distinction 
between the righteousness and the salvation of the Church. To 
the former I have hitherto principally if not entirely confined my 
remarks. It relates to the exteriour edifice of Zion; to that beauti- 
ful garb, in which she has been arrayed, by the God and Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, and presented as a enaste bride to his only 
begotten and well beloved Son. 

Having minutely examined her in tifis particular; having largely 
proved the scriptural character a«d complexion of her external fea- 
tures, that like the king's daughter described in the psalms, " her 
clothing is of wrought go! J;" I cannot but hope that you will con- 
sider my early pledges satisfactorily redeemed, and concur with me 
in the^ppinion, that in the defence of such a Church as our own, 
they, who minister at her altar, should, in the spirit of Isaiah, nei- 
ther hold their peace nor rest, " until the righteousness thereof go 
forth as brightness." 

To the latter clause of his interesting vow, I must not however 
fail to solicit an equal share of attention, although the discussion 
will be much more partial and restricted. Often in the scriptures, 
do we meet with such expressions as these ; the word of salvation ; 
the joy of salvation. Expressions that are not to be construed lit- 
erally, but metonymically; salvation having no other connexion 
with the word or with joy than this, the word unfolds the doctrine of 
redemption, and there is joy attending the conviction of our being 
placed in a state of acceptance with God. So in the text: By the 
Salvation of Zion and Jerusalem, it is not meant, that the Church is 

¥ 



170 



the efficient cause of future happiness, nor that every indiv&luai 
within its pale necessarily becomes the heir of glory and immor- 
tality. But the real meaning is, that divine truth is therein incul^ 
cated ; that the doctrines,, which are according to godliness accom- 
pany the bride of the Holy One ; and that men have only to embrace 
them, with a true heart in full assurance of faith r in order to receive 
the end of that faith, even the salvation of their souls. 

That our Church, Brethren, is fully entitled to this enviable char- 
acter, I shall endeavour to establish with as much brevity as possi- 
ble. Examine her doctrines, thoroughly examine, and give to them 
the unhesitating assent of the mind, the unswerving obedience of 
the heart ; and there is not one of you, but shall have ample reason 
to rejoice at the zeal of all those, her faithful ministers, who fear- 
lessly and piously resolve, neither to hold their peace nor rest, 
until the salvation thereof shall go forth as a lamp that burnetii. 

As you have already learnt, I am not ignorant of the odium, with 
which sectarian prejudice has contrived to surround her : How eve- 
ry stripling in divinity can brandish the weapons of calumny and 
detraction, imputing to her clergy and laity principles and prac 
tices, which they loathe and abhor. I am not ignorant, that she is 
looked upon with an evil eye by multitudes, who have no knowledge 
of the faith she embraces, and' ike works she is solicitous to main- 
tain. I am not ignorant,, that precisely as it was said by them of 
old time, " Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth V r So in 
these modern days the question is not only asked, Can there any 
good thing come out of a Church so formal and corrupt? But the- 
assertion is proudly and boldly hazarded, that her members have 
no saving faith, no vital religion, no warm and decided attachment 
to their God and Saviour. I am not ignorant of these things, nor 
of those answers of silent pity and compassion, which they would, 
alone deserve, were it not that many of the pious and worthy are 
miserably deceived and led away by the most foul aspersions. A 
consideration sufficiently powerful to prevail with me to attempt 
the removal of the veil from their eyes, and to inspire them with 
more just and generous sentiments. 

With this view, be it known, that there is not one, among the re- 
formed Churches, which occupies a rank, so distinguished on the. 
page of history; not one, whose zeal for the interests of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom has been so ardent and persevering ; not one,, to 



171 



whom the world has been so much indebted for the labours of love 
and benevolence. What were the original reformers in England, 
but Churchmen? What other bodies than theirs were freely given 
to be burned, in order to satiate the vengeance of a papal queen, 
and bear the noblest testimony in favour of pure religion and un- 
defined, before God and the Father ? It is not so long since, but we 
may easily ascertain whose blood it was, that proved the seed of the 
protestant Church, in the land of our forefathers. Our opponents 
cannot rob us of the sainted names of Cranmer, and Hooper, and 
Latimer, and Ridley. These are our martyred worthies; these, 
the first fruits of our reformed Zion; these, the faithful and holy, 
who, guided by the directing hand of Providence, first restored her 
to primitive order and simplicity, and then counted not their lives 
dear unto them, so that they might finish their course with joy, and 
the ministry, which they had received from the Lord Jesus. Tell 
me not then, with such examples before the world, such unequivo- 
cal demonstrations of love to Christ, and devotedness to his service; 
tell me not, of the Church reclaimed and purified by them, the 
Church adorned by their lives, and hallowed by their deaths, that 
it affords no asylum to the broken and contrite spirit; that its doc«= 
trines and worship are unfavourable to the progress of religion in 
the soul, and its members comparatively destitute of that warmth 
of attachment towards their august Redeemer, which is vehemently 
claimed by their Christian brethren. When it shall be seen, that a 
nobler army of martyrs have laid the foundation of a human 
Church, and when it shall be proved that our own Zion has de= 
generated from the doctrines maintained by her almost inspired 
reformers, it will then be time to boast of a purer origin, a more 
scriptural faith, and a more holy obedience. 

Nor let it cease to be remembered, that the brightest page in 
modern ecclesiastical history is consecrated to the glory and honour 
of the Church, "All scripture is" indeed "given by inspiration 
of God," and is the revelation of his love and mercy, springing 
from the self devotion and sacrifice of his beloved Son, But wher- 
ever our mother tongue prevails ; Is it now " profitable for doctrine^ 
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that 
the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works?" To the Church under God belongs the glory and the praise. 
The bible we read; the bible we love, is the translation of Church- 



172 



men. To a numerous body of our divines was Committed the- 
high honour and distinguished trust of clothing the word of God 
in an English dress, of rendering it accessible to the common 
people, and enabling them to judge for themselves, what were the 
true doctrines of the cross, the precepts and institutions of the 
gospel. 

And was this performed long after the reformation, in the reign 
and at the instance of the first James, a monarch pertinaciously 
attached to our episcopal system of government and articles of 
faith, and by the labours of men alike persuaded in their minds, and 
zealous in their affection? Was it performed in a manner, that has 
justly challenged the applause and admiration of the world ; that 
has extorted the eulogium of criticks, and commanded the approba- 
tion of theologians, for the perspicuity of its style, and the fidelity 
with which it has conveyed the sense of the original? Was it so 
performed, as to supersede all prior, and obviate the necessity of all 
subsequent translations ; so performed, as to be still retained, not 
only by us, but by all the orthodox denominations? Oh! tell me no 
more of the little, that the Church has done for the prosperity of 
the Redeemer's kingdom, and the everlasting welfare of souls. 
This single work, had she no other to adorn her history, gives her 
a transcendent claim upon the gratitude and affection of the people, 
that now lift up their voice against her; that deride her piety, and 
scorn her holy things. 

But for her, they might have been to this very hour destitute of 
an authorized version of the scriptures ; one, in which they could 
confide, as containing all the words of this life. She alone has 
supplied them. She has given them the bible, they both read and 
circulate ; and has thus been instrumental in training up amongst 
them more precious souls for the heavenly world, than all other 
instruments which God. in his wisdom and goodness, has conde- 
scended to employ. Let them think of this, while they look over 
its pages; let them think of it, when they return thanks to Him, 
for this powerful mean of converting grace ; and let them cease to 
rail; let them indulge a more charitable spirit towards the descend- 
ants of those highly gifted men ; descendants, that have imbibed 
their spirit, and preserved alive and unimpaired the pure doctrines, 
institutions and worship of the Church, to which they were so ar- 
dently attached. 



173 



And here, Brethren, you must be sensible, that the time would 
fail me were I to enumerate the long, long list of worthies, who have 
graced her annals, and elevated her to the pinnacle of sacred fame. 
Where are they, that have excelled her divines in the true interpre- 
tation of the scriptures, and furnished such practical comments upon 
them? That have composed such masterly treatises in their de- 
fence, and foiled all the arguments of the infidel? That have written 
so wisely and well upon the doctrinal truths, and preceptive duties 
of Christianity? That have expended more time, and talents, and 
treasures, in spreading abroad the knowledge of God ; in founding 
and patronising institutions subservient to the interests, and con- 
formable to the genius of our religion? Far be it from me to withold 
the humble tribute of my praise from the wise and good, who have 
flourished among other denominations, and contributed to enlighten 
the world, by their mental and spiritual labours. I am rather dis 
posed to love them for their work's sake, and to cherish the memory 
of their learning and piety with the profoundest esteem. 

But when the character of our Church is impugned, and the ten- 
dency of her principles and practice more than called in question: 
When she is violently denounced, and the lamp of her salvation is 
sought to be extinguished; it would be base and criminal to be silent; 
it would be to admit the verity of the foulest charges, were I not 
to advert to the productions of our theologians, and challenge all 
other Churches to compare with them, in the number and excellen- 
cy of their writings. 

Go to the largest publick libraries of our opponents, and the can 
did among them will not hesitate to acknowledge, that with com- 
paratively few exceptions, the standard authors and luminaries of 
the religious world were bred up in the bosom of the Church. Go 
to their private collections, and from the folios of Scott, to the 
tracts of Richmond, they are principally derived from the same 
source. 

And is a Church thus justified of her children, thus virtually ad- 
mitted to have ably defended, and piously enforced the truth as it 
is in Jesus ; is she to be traduced by the pen, and especially by the 
tongue of calumny, without one effort to exhibit her actual charac- 
ter, and maintain her substantial claims upon the confidence and 
affection of an abused and misguided community ? God forbid ! 
Forbid it righteous heaven! that so great a calamity should ever 



174 



befall the vine, which the right hand of Christ hath planted; which 
the Apostles and innumerable martyrs have watered with their 
blood ; and that only requires to be known, in order to command 
the esteem and veneration of the West. 

Next to the glory of God, the triumph of Christ, and the salvation 
of all, there is no prayer, which I more cordially present before the 
throne of grace, than the prayer, that our Church might be univer- 
sally and thoroughly investigated ; that she might be subjected to 
the severest scrutiny ; and be made to pass through the most fiery 
ordeal. I would keep nothing back. J would have her fathomed to 
the bottom, and in all things rendered visible as the sun. If she can- 
not endure the refiner's fire; if when refined as silver is refined, 
and tried as gold is tried, she does not come out pure and without 
alloy, in all the essentials and requirements of a true faith, and a 
holy obedience; then am I content, that her altars shall be trodden 
down, and her glory given to another; another, that shall prove 
more trustworthy ; more closely identified with the Apostolick 
Church; more scriptural in every thing, we are commanded to be- 
lieve and obey. 

With these preparatory remarks, I proceed to the examination of 
her doctrines; those evangelical doctrines, which are of the greatest 
moment, and upon which I have reason to believe, that the largest 
amount of misapprehension exists. These are to be gained from 
the received articles of her faith. Articles, that w ere first publish- 
ed in England, by Edward the sixth ; that were there finally revised 
and established, by a convocation of the clergy in the year fifteen 
hundred and seventy one, during the reign of Elizabeth; and that, 
after the revolution, which wrested our country from the yoke of 
Britain, were adopted by us, with no other alterations, than such as 
accommodated them, in a political point of view, to the genius of a 
republican government. Many of them, it will not be necessary to 
notice, either because they have already passed in review, or are 
devoted to subjects, upon which we have been permitted to escape 
without serious imputations upon our principles and professions. 

Our belief, for example, in the catholick doctrine of the Trinity in 
Unity, has never been questioned. It is solemnly repeated every 
sabbath, and the language of our first article is thus clear and de~ 
terminate, " There is but one living and true God, everlasting, with 
^itbody, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom^ and goodness; 



175 

the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. 
And in unity of this Godhead, there be three persons, of one sub- 
stance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost." 

Our views of the divinity and humanity of Christ are not impugn- 
ed, " The Son, which is the word of the Father, begotten from ev- 
erlasting of the Father, the very and eternal God, of one substance 
with the Father, took man's nature in the womb of the blessed 
Virgin, of her substance : So that two whole and perfect natures^ 
that is to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined together in 
one person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God. 
and very Man." 

Our reception of the inspired volume has not been denied. M Holy 
scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation : So that 
whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to- 
be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of 
the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the 
name of the holy scripture we do understand those canonical books 
of the old and new testament, of whose authority was never any 
doubt in the Church." 

vVe are even allowed, upon the great doctrines of the cross, to 
have expressed our belief in terms sufficiently explicit and ortho- 
dox. But then we are accused of entertaining them, with certain 
mental reservations, and of harbouring in reality, sentiments ma- 
terially unsound, and variant from the recorded letter. So far as 
personally concerned, I do not scruple to repel the calumny with 
the indignation it deserves. I do most sincerely and heartily sub- 
scribe to all the articles of religion embraced by the Church. J 
have no cause to make, nor have I any confidence in, such secret 
compromises with the conscience; but freely and unreservedly do 
I believe every one of those articles, in their plain and literal ac- 
ceptation. As to others, if there be an exception, in the case 
of any of oar clergy in these United States, it is entirely unknown 
to me. Our accusers are better informed, and let them substan- 
tiate their charges by proof, and not by random assertion. 

To descend to particulars ; no one doctrine of the scriptures is 
more important, or necessary to be received, than the fall of man 
irom the state of primitive innocence, with the consequent cor- 
ruption of all his moral power?, and the transmission of that cor 



176 



ruption to his entire posterity. And what is clearly revealed hi 
the scriptures, the Church as clearly maintains. These are her 
words, " Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the 
Pelagians do vainly talk;) but it is the fault and corruption of the 
nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring 
of Adam, whereby man is very far rone from original righteous- 
ness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh 
lusteth always contrary to the Spirit ; and therefore in every person 
born into this world, it deserveth God's wrath and damnation. And 
this infection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are regen- 
erated ; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in Greek, Phronema 
sarcos, which some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, 
some the affection, some the desire of the flesh is not subject to the 
law of God. And although there is no condemnation for them that 
believe and are baptized ; yet the Apostle doth confess, that con- 
cupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature of sin.'^ 

And among our orthodox fellow Christians, who is there to ob- 
ject to this open and undisguised avowal of what, it deeply con- 
cerns our fallen and guilty race to understand ? Some of their 
number, I am aware, would prefer to substitute " total depravity," 
for the expression, "very far gone from original righteousness.'" 
But with what correctness, may be estimated from the consideration, 
that it would involve the infant soul, at its birth, in a state equally 
degraded and polluted with the spirit of the infernal himself. 
Whereas with these interesting beings, corruption is rather of a 
negative quality, and indicates the absence of all natural holiness. 
Sin is in their hearts ; but it is dormant ; it is sleeping on a con- 
genial couch, from which it rises active and refreshed, as a giant 
from his slumbers, with the first perceptions of the mind, and the 
earliest propensities of the flesh ; obtaining an ascendency, in pro- 
portion to the failure of the instituted counteracting causes, or the 
obstinacy, with which the strivings of God's holy Spirit are resisted 
and withstood. 

To support me in these views, 1 have the testimony of common 
sense, assuring me, that infants can commit no actual trespasses; 
I have the testimony of experience, convincing me, that sins un- 
known to them, and of the blackest turpitude, are the work of man's 
maturer years ; 1 have the testimony of Jesus Christ, declaring 
unto each of us, " Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God 



177 



as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 1 " All which is utterly 
irreconcilable with total depravity, and enough to deter me from 
adopting that most unnatural and unwarrantable phrase. 

Still however it must not be concealed, that there is no inborn 
health in us; that we are naturally inclined to evil; and that left 
to ourselves, we could only forge new links to the chain, which, 
fastens us to the chariot wheels of sin. Whoever thinks otherwise; 
whoever preaches otherwise, knows little of himself, little of his 
fellow men, and still less of the gospel. He may amuse his hear- 
ers with beautiful delineations of the innocence and the dignity of 
their nature; but having relinquished the most powerful motive for 
their reliance upon the Rock of Ages, he will be apt to inspire 
them with a degree of self confidence, visionary and fatal in the 
extreme. He will certainly impute falsehood to David where he 
says, "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother 
conceive me." He will flatly contradict the Apostle, where he 
feelingly communes with himself, "I know that in me (that is, in 
my flesh) dwelleth no good thing : for to will is present with me ; 
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that 
I would, I do not : but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now„ 
if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwell- 
eth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, sin is 
present with me." While therefore we renounce the idea of total 
depravity, as absurdly applied to any other beings, than the devil 
and his angels, we cordially agree with the Church in the belief 
that " man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of 
his own nature inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always con- 
trary to the Spirit." Let our adversaries assert what they please ? 
upon this belief we preach, and upon this warn every hearer of the 
absolute, and indispensable necessity of a radical change of the 
heart and its affections. 

But why do we warn every hearer? Why urge upon all the 
duty of becoming faithful, and penitent, and holy? It is because 
we believe with the Church, that " The offering of Christ once 
made, is that perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for 
all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual;" which 
she describes to be "the one oblation," and avers, that "there is 
none other satisfaction for sin, but that alone." It is because, dis- 
carding all metaphysical subtleties, we give the only just and 

Z 



176 



natural construction to such inspired declarations, as these, " The- 
grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men." 
" As by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to con- 
demnation ; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came 
upon all men unto justification of life." " The love of Christ 
constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, 
then were all dead." i( We see Jesus, who was made a little lower 
than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and 
honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for 
every man." " The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as 
. some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not 
willing that anv should perish, but that all should come to re- 
pentance." " The times of this ignorance God winked at ; but now 7 
commandeth all men every where to repent." "This is good and 
acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all 
men to be saved, anof to come to the knowledge of the truth. For 
there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man 
Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified 
in due time." 

Yes, Brethren, such is our creed, such the support rt obtains from 
the scriptures^ and although the limits I have prescribed to myself 
will not permit me to embark in the full discussion of its merits, 
a brief statement of the opposite doctrine will disclose a system of 
faith, from which your minds must recoil with abhorrence, and at 
the same time coincide with me, in pronouncing it to be an outra- 
geous libel upon the true character of God, and the mission of 
Christ. 

Contrary then to the article of our Church, which asserts, that 
this gracious Being made a "perfect redemption, propitiation, and 
satisfaction for all the sins of the whole world, both original and 
actual;" it is maintained as the first principle in the Calvinistick 
creed, that his atonement was partial and particular; that it only 
embraced the sins of a portion of the human race, while those of' 
the residue of their fellow creatures have neither been atoned for, 
nor themselves placed in a situation, wherein it is possible to par- 
take of the mercy of God. The pen almost refuses to transcribe 
an opinion, so diametrically at war with the scriptures, and so in- 
consistent with their proverbial invitations to all sinners to repent 
to believe, and to obey, 



m 

If the preceding texts were not sufficient, it is contradicted in 
terms by St. Peter, " There shall be false teachers among you, who 
shall privily bring in damnable heresies, even denying the 
Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruc- 
tion." Also by St. Paul, " Destroy not him with thy meat for 
whom Christ died ;" and again, where his remonstrance upon the 
subject of meats offered to idols turns upon the fact expressed in 
these words, "Through thy knowledge shall the weak brother 
perish, for whom Christ died." 

Nothing then can be more evident, than the final destruction from 
the presence of the Lord of many, whose sins were completely 
atoned for, by the death and sacrifice of the Lamb of God. And yet 
upon the foundation of a partial atonement, or particular redemp- 
tion of the elect, and the elect alone, is built the whole theory of 
election and reprobation. I will give it to you in the words of Cal- 
vin; "Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, by which 
he hath determined in himself, what he would have to become of 
every individual of mankind » For they are not all created with a 
similar destiny ; but eternal life is foreordained for some, and eter- 
nal damnation for others. Every man therefore, being created for 
one or the other of these ends, we say, he is predestinated either to 
life or to death." 

It is impossible, Brethren, for any language to be easier of com- 
prehension, and if true, our future destiny was unalterably fixed 
before the worlds were made. Some of us were created for the ex- 
press purpose of being saved, and some of us for the express pur- 
pose of being damned. And that I am not putting a false con- 
struction upon the extract from Calvin, whether it regards the one 
class or the other, will be apparent from the testimony borne by 
several of his followers. 

In relation to the elect, and the certainty of their salvation, Coles 
on the sovereignty of God, remarks, " As it was not any loveliness 
in elect persons which moved God to love them at first, so neither 
shall their unlovely backslidings deprive them of it." 

The celebrated preacher, Rowland Hill assures us, that " David 
stood as completely justified in the everlasting righteousness of 
Christ, at the time, when he caused Uriah to be murdered, and was 
committing adultery with his wife, as he was in any part of his 
iife. For all the sins of the elect, be they more, or be they less. 



180 



he they past, present, or to come, were forever done away. So that 
every one of these elecf stand spotless in the sight of God." 

The same principle is espoused b\ Mason in his Spiritual Trea- 
sury, "Suppose a believer to be taken away in his sin, and hath 
not time to repent of it, there was that in him, that would have re- 
pented, and God reckons of a man according to that he would do. n 
The same author, and there are none more highly esteemed among 
the writers of his class, in another place uses expressions, yet 
more extraordinary and reprehensible; "Though a believer be 
black as hell, polluted with guilt, defiled with sin, yet in Christ, he 
is all fair without a spot; free from sin, as viewed by God in Christ, 
fully reconciled to God, and standing without trespasses before him." 
As I have not however been able to find these sentiments in the 
American edition of Mason, I conclude that an expurgation has 
been deemed prudent ;,but they appear in that, published in London 
by Romaine. 

Such then, Brethren, according to these men, may be the charac- 
ter of the elect of God, without in the smallest degree impairing 
their right and title to look for a new heavens and a new earth, 
wherein dwelleth righteousness, and no less strongly, decidedly, 
and unconditionally are the reprobate consigned to everlasting 
perdition. 

Zanchius, the Swiss reformer, declares, that " the reprobate are 
bound by the ordinance of God under the necessity of sinning;" 
and Beza his countryman, that "'God hath predestinated, not only 
unto damnation, but also unto the causes of it, whomsoever he saw 
meet." 

Calvin himself pronounces of this benevolent Being, and of his 
designs in relation to sinners, "He directs his voice to them, but it 
is that they may become more deaf; he kindles a light, but it is that 
they may be more blind; he publishes his doctrine, but it is that 
they may be made more besotted ; he applies a remedy, but it is that 
they may not be healed. 4 ' 

Perkins, an old English divine, affirms, that " God hath most 
justly decreed even the wicked works of the wicked;*' and Knox, 
the Scotch reformer, that " The wicked are not only left by God's 
suffering, but are compelled to sin by his power." 

I shall conclude with Toplady, the most renowned of all the 
modern advocates of Calvinism, and one of the few of that description 



181 



ui the Church of England. " God did not barely suffer, but posi- 
lively intended and decreed them, (the reprobate) to continue in 
their natural blindness and hardness of heart." " He does not only 
negatively withold from the wicked his grace, which alone can re- 
strain them from evil ; but occasionally, in the course of his provi- 
dence, he puts them into circumstances of temptation, such as shall 
cause the persons so tempted actually to turn aside from the path 
of duty to commit sin.*' K The sentence of God, which rejects the 
reprobates, is so fixed and immutable, that it is impossible they 
should be saved, though they have performed all the works of the 
saints : and therefore, it is not true, that those who perish through 
their own fault, might have been saved through grace, if they had 
not ceased labouring for saving grace." 

How disgusting the features, how dreadful the portrait, I have 
here felt myself compelled to exhibit from the writings of men, 
with one or two exceptions, the principal leaders and promoters in 
the ranks of schism. They remind me of the observation of Eras- 
mus, the most learned of those, who flourished at the period of the 
reformation ; " This new gospel, founded upon the doctrine of ab- 
solute decrees, has produced a new generation of obstinate, impu- 
dent, hypocritical people, who are revilers, liars, deceivers ; and 
who do not agree among themselves, and are very uneasy toothers; 
who are seditious, furious, given to cavilling; and with whom I am 
so much dissatisfied, that if I knew any town where none of them 
were, I would go thither, and choose to live in it.'" They remind 
me of what was long since declared, by Bishop Seabury of our 
own American Church, when exposing the prominent errour of 
Calvinism ; u All objects are said to appear yellow to the jaundiced 
eye. Predestination is to the mind what the jaundice is to the 
body. The whole bible appears tinctured with a sickly, yellow 
hue, when the predestinarian looks into it, especially if he be of a 
morose and vindictive temper, as most commonly is the case. To 
see God consigning the greater part of mankind to eternal misery, 
in consequence of his own arbitrary decree, just to show that he 
can do it, and will do it — for the glory of his justice, as they call 
it — seems to be congenial and grateful to his heart : and, in truth, 
the consequences of this doctrine, carried to its full extent, however 
the abetters of it may not own or see them, represent Almighty- 
God, the God of goodness and love, to whom be glory for ever, in a 



182 



more unamiable light than it is possible for human wit to represent' 
the devil/' 

I feel myself therefore, Brethren, fully authorized to repeat, that 
you cannot but coincide with me, in pronouncing it to be an out- 
rageous libel upon the true character of God, and the mission of 
Christ. The naked recital of such a system is all that is requisite 
to ensure its rejection, wherever the mind is unprejudiced, and rea- 
son is suffered calmly and dispassionately to investigate the oracles 
of truth. They afford it no countenance, and the seventeenth ar- 
ticle of the Church will hereafter be found to be equally free from 
the imputation. 

Is it then for refusing to adopt a theory so grossly absurd, and 
even detestable, when expounded by its most zealous partisans? 
Is it for this, that the great body of our clergy are accused of luke- 
warmness in the cause of their Redeemer, if a Redeemer they have ? 
Long may they give occasion to endure the reproach. Long may 
they present our heavenly Father and the Son of his love, in a ; 
more inviting and encouraging aspect to the minds and consciences 
of sinners. Not one of you, Brethren, shall hereafter perish, through 
any arbitrary, irrespective, and irreversible decree. Not one of 
you, because your eternal life was never purchased by a Saviour's 
all-atoning blood. But if ye perish, the fault will be your own ; 
the awful catastrophe will be owing to your own perverse refusal 
to believe and obey the words of eternal life. 

And may these considerations stimulate you to new and more 
vigorous efforts to make your calling and election sure. If ye will 
but permit your faith to be active, your repentance to be genuine, 
and your obedience perfect, not all the preposterous opinions of 
men will avail to exclude you from the mansions of everlasting 
felicity. But by his Spirit working in due season, the very God 
of peace will sanctify you wholly, he will lift up the light of his 
reconciled countenance upon 3-ou, and finally, for Christ's sake s 
ndmit you into the presence of his exceeding glory. Ame>t 



18* 



SERMON XV. 

isaiah lxii. L 

For Zions sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem? $ sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

THERE are few topicks in divinity less understood than 
that of predestination. It is owing to the strange conceits and 
metaphysical species of dialecticks, which have usurped the name, 
and transformed the pure, intelligible doctrine of the scriptures 
into a hideous monster of deformity, odious to the eye, and revolt- 
ing to the mind and heart. I gave you some specimens of this 
character upon the recent sabbath, and am confident, that no ration- 
al being, if left to the free and unrestrained exercise of his own 
faculties and judgment, would permit himself to be deluded by 
a system so derogatory to the goodness, and subversive of the jus- 
tice of the Deity. 

To make men for the sole object of damning them everlastingly ! 
To impute such a motive to the benignant Being, who presides over 
the universe, and whose tender mercies are represented to be over 
all his works! The act itself is shocking to our moral feelings, 
and the imputation, if it had never been hazarded by men of piety 
and learning; if it had now for the first time been submitted to our 
examination, would be universally denounced, as impious and even 
blasphemous to the last degree. It would be considered a new 
edition of those mythological crudities, which invested the heathen 
gods and goddesses, with the most ferocious and vindictive passions; 
which made the earth, the beleagured object of their tyrannv, and 
the bodies and souls of men, the hapless victims of their unrelent- 
ing malice. 

Nev er would it be tolerated, that our heavenly Father was capa- 
ble of forming and publishing a decree, so despotick and unjust, 
so repugnaajao the perfections, with which 'he bible delights to 
encircle M^nd so hostile to the best and dearest interests of a 



184 



large proportion of our race. But the true scriptural doctrine 
would be unanimously embraced. Predestination would be pre- 
sented and received in its more attractive, and only authentiok 
form. That it does exist in the sacred volume cannot be seriously 
denied. But then as dissimilar to the refined absurdities of Calvin, 
as light is dissimilar to darkness, and truth to falsehood. 

For what if God is there said to have predetermined the fate of ' 
every man? It is not with reference to persons, but to their char- 
acters. It is not by a capricious creation or selection of a certain 
number to be saved, and a certain number to be damned. But from 
everlasting the decree hath gone forth ; from everlasting to everlast- 
ing, it hath been ordained, that the righteous shall hereafter be 
supremely blessed, and the unrighteous supremely miserable. And 
is not this materially variant from determining as to the persons^ 
who shall be irresistibly constrained to become the one and tire 
other? 

When human laws describe offences, and for their prevention 
impose an adequate penalty to be visited on the guilty: Does this 
compel you to commit them? Are any selected from the mass of 
their fellow citizens, and by the statutes of the land invincibly co- 
erced to the perpetration of robbery, of arson, of murder? Under 
such circumstances, I am sure you would find none to condemn 
them, as criminals; no judge or jury to pronounce them justly 
amenable to the severity of penal inflictions. They must rather 
have first occupied the attitude of free agents. Obedience and diso- 
bedience, with the respective consequences, must have been fairly 
set before them, and then, if they voluntarily transgress, the laws, 
enacted for the punishment of all transgressors, would have person- 
al application to each individual robber, incendiary, or murderer. 

And precisely thus with the decrees of God : He requires of all 
men to be righteous. He tells them in what righteousness consists 
He promises his divine assistance in enabling them to obtain it ; 
and, as an inducement to ardent and persevering exertions on their 
part, he has decreed in case of cheerful obedience, to give them the 
blessing of life eternal. He also demands of them to abstain from 
all unrighteousness. He explains its nature. He Assures them of 
his inclination to bestow upon them power to triumph over it ; and as a 
motive to operate upon their minds and consciences, hehas decreed 
in case of disobedience, to consign them over tc the'Wngeance of 
eternal fire. 



185 



Yes, Brethren, these are the decrees or laws of God j the eternal 
purposes he has entertained and proclaimed in relation to the pre- 
sent conduct and future destiny of all mankind. They admit of 
free agency. They constitute a fair, undisguised, and impartial 
system of jurisprudence. They convince us, that instead of being 
controlled, by a secret and unavoidable fatality, to become either 
righteous or unrighteous, we are to a certain extent the arbiters of 
our own condition, both in time and in eternity. Religion and ir- 
religion are at our own option. If we embrace the former, it will be 
the life ; if the latter, it will be the death of our souls. There is no 
such thing as original celestial love for the person of one man, and 
hatred for that of another. Character is here every thing. Righteous- 
ness and .unrighteousness, obedience and disobedience, these alone 
are £he- objects of the divine decrees. After what Christ has achieved 
ifl reconciling the world to God, through these are the faithful to be 
rewarded, and the unfaithful punished at the judgment of the great 
day. 

If a different doctrine from this is to be found in our seventeenth 
article, I have not the sagacity to detect it. Not one syllable does 
it contain of individual reprobation or pretention, although insepa- 
rably connected with unconditional election in the opinion of Calvin 
and his followers. " Predestination to life is" indeed declared to 
be, "the everlasting purpose of God, whereby (before the founda- 
tions of the world were laid) he hath constantly decreed, by his 
counsel, secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation, those 
whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and to bring them 
by Christ to everlasting salvation, as vessels made to honour.'" 

But here is nothing discrepant from my sentiments; nothing that 
the clergy of the Church are indisposed to maintain. Never do they 
deny, that " the godly consideration of predestination, and our elec- 
tion in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort to 
godly persons, and such as feel in themselves the working of the 
Spirit of Christ, mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly 
members, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things.' 5 
That godly consideration this article concisely asserts, and no 
Christians in their senses will object to the predestination, which, 
founded upon the word of righteousness, entirely harmonizes with 
all their hopes and expectations, " as well because it doth greatly 
establish and confirm their faith of eternal salvation, to be enjoyed 

2A 



through Christ, as becuuselt doth fervently kindle their love to 
wards God:" Which indeed assures them of their final acceptance 
with him, not from any capricious exercise of omnipotent power; 
but from the fact of their having fully and cordially closed with the 
overtures made them through Christ. " Wherefore,*' as the article 
before recites of those converted by his saving grace, M Wherefore 
they, which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God. be called 
according to God's purpose by His Spirit working in due seasons 
they through grace obey the calling: they be justified freely: they 
be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of 
his only begotten Son Jesus Christ : they walk religiously in good 
works: and at length by God's mercy they attain to everlasting' 
felicity." 

And let me tell you, Brethren, that every man placed within the 
yound of the gospel, is " called according to God's purpose working 
m due season ; n although it is but too evident, that many refuse to 
obey. Whoever does, the article pronounces predestined to eternal 
life, and I ask for no more consoling doctrine. I perceive that the- 
predestination of the bible, and the predestination of the Church are 
in perfect concord. So little sympathy has she for the monstrous 
absurdity of making our Father in heaven create immortal souls, 
merely to evince his power and determination to punish them ever- 
lastingly from his presence, as to declare, that u for curious and 
carnal persons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually 
before their eyes the sentence of God's predestination, is a most dan 
gerous downfal, whereby the devil doth thrust them either into des- 
peration, or into wretchlessness of most unclean living no less per- 
ilous than desperation.' 1 So clearly does she coincide with the 
views I am desirous to inculcate, as to affirm, that < ; we must receive 
God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in 
holy scripture : And in our doings, that will of God is to be followed, 
which we have expressly declared unto us in the word of God." 

All which is manifestly inconsistent with decrees of election and 
reprobation, ordained without foresight of obedience on the one 
hand, or of disobedience on the other. Since those promises are 
directed to all who believe and repent, and the divine Being is u not 
willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repen- 
tance." The followers of Calvin may therefore continue to deter- 
mine, that u The decrees were not formed in. consequence of any 



167 



foresight of sin or holiness in the reprobate or elect:-' OurZion 
will not so determine, will not so positively circumscribe the good- 
ness and mercy of God, as to defeat the voluntary co-operation of 
man in the work of his salvation, and to render numbers of our race 
incapable of acquiring that sincere faith and holy obedience, which 
bring the Christian within the covenant of grace, and the predes- 
tination of the godly to life eternal. She advances a doctrine more 
analagous to common sense, more respectful to the attributes of the 
Deity, more illustrative of the extent of his benevolence, and more 
conformable to what the Apostle Peter proclaimed to the strangers 
enumerated in his first epistle, that they were {: Elect according to 
the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctifieation of 
the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus." 

Here however I am told, that the foreknowledge of the Deity is 
in effect precisely the same with his predestination ; in other words, 
that what he foreknows must as certainly come to pass, as what he 
predestines. But allow me to assure you, that no opinion can be 
more unfounded. It entirely destroys the necessity of a superin- 
tending Providence, interfering with and regulating the affairs of 
men: it engages us in a vain and fallacious service, when we re- 
turn thanks to God, for having saved our lives from destruction in 
the hour of impending danger ; and it contradicts a very plain and 
explicit narrative recorded in the twenty third chapter of the first 
book of Samuel. Keilah, a town besieged by the Philistines, was 
rescued from their grasp by David acting under the immediate di 
rection of God. "And it was told Saul that David was come to 
Keilah. And Saul said, God hath delivered him into mine hand; 
for he is shut in, by entering into a town that hath gates and bars. 
And Saul called all the people together to war, logo down to Keilahc 
to besiege David and his men. And David knew that Saul secretly 
practised mischief against him : and he said to Abiathar the priest, 
Bring hither the ephod. Then said David, O Lord God of IsraeL 
thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to 
Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah 
deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down as thy servant 
hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant, 
And the Lord said, He will come down. Then said David, Will 
the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? 
And the Lord said. They will deliver thee up. Then David 



18fc 



and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed 
out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was 
told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah ; and he forbare to 
go forth." 

Here then, you perceive a wide distinction between the fore- 
knowledge and the predestination of events. To the inquiries of 
David, concerning Saul and the people of Keilah, the answers of 
God were positive and direct, " He will come down." — "They 
will deliver thee up." And will you undertake to assert, that 
they proceeded not from an attribute purely divine? Will you deny, 
that the prescience of God, enabled him to reveal the intended en- 
terprise of Saul, and the course, which would be pursued by the 
ungrateful inhabitants, provided their town was invested? An en- 
terprise directed against Keilah, and a course fatal to the liberty and 
the life of David. * 

Surely, Brethren, unless you are disposed to think that the im- 
maculate Jehovah may sometimes trifle with his dependant crea- 
tures, may sometimes delight to render them the miserable dupes 
of a capricious and unfounded revelation ; you must believe, that 
these replies had their foundation in the foreknowledge of God, 
and at the same time deem it totally inconsistent with his veracity 
to communicate as forthcoming events, what he had previously de- 
termined from all eternity never should transpire. Nor can you 
fail to remark in this gracious dispensation, such an interposing 
providence, as penetrates and overrules the designs of men, in 
pursuance of a settled system of moral government; and such a 
display of divine foresight, as had not the remotest connexion 
with pre-existing decrees, because the very circumstances un- 
folded never occurred : Saul forbore to go forth, and the men of 
Keilah did not betray their guest and deliverer, because he availed 
himself of the disclosures of the Deity to frustrate the malignity of 
his open, and the treachery of his secret foes. 

What then becomes of the supposed identity of foreknowledge, 
with predestination ? That which is decreed by God must neces- 
sarily come to pass. What becomes of another doctrine of the 
same school, insisting, that God only foreknows, because he has 
previously predestined? A relation of facts is here recorded ab- 
solutely incompatible with such priority. For were it true, how 
could the Almighty have declared without any reservation what- 



189 



rver, -He will come down;" — "They will deliver thee up; v 
when he must certainly have known, in virtue of his own eternal 
decree, that such incidents could not possibly ensue? But if fore- 
sight in him is not the consequent of preordination; if mankind 
are indeed left to act in a state of probation, according to impres- 
sions made upon their minds by external objects, and in compliance 
with their own volition ; then can we easily comprehend that the 
Omniscient foreseeing the designs of David's enemies, and applied 
to in the way he had himself prescribed, might providentially in- 
terfere to advise him of his danger, revealing what would inevitably 
follow, if he remained in Keilah, and leaving it to his own discre- 
tion to adopt such measures as the exigency required. Hence the 
safety of the future monarch of Israel, and hence this plain, un- 
varnished scripture, that. more valuable than volumes of meta- 
physical disquisitions, clearly falsifies the groundwork of a chimer- 
ical theory in language, too intelligible to be misunderstood, too 
obvious to be easily tortured in subserviency to that fatal necessity, 
which first fetters its victim with an irreversible destiny, and then 
condemns him for transgressions he could not avoid. 

Nor can the doctrine of absolute unconditional predestination 
be fairly deduced from any part of the sacred volume. It is true, 
that many passages have been plausibly enlisted in its support; 
but as far the larger number of able divines apprehend, without 
any adequate reason for the interpretation given them. Thus, for 
example, the acknowledgment, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have 
I hated" is often adduced in favour of arbitrary election and repro- 
bation, when a candid examination ought to convince us, that this 
discrimination related exclusively to the line of conveyance through 
which the promised seed was to descend. In which sense, Jacob 
was selected to the prejudice of Esau, and in the emphatick lan- 
guage of the scriptures, it is well said, that the one was loved and 
the other hated. So also Abraham was loved in preference to 
Nahor, Isaac to Ishmael, Judah to Reuben, and so on to the virgin 
Mary, who was loved, and all other women hated, inasmuch as she 
was chosen to be the mother of Christ, and they were all super- 
seded. A construction, that is amply confirmed by the observation 
of our Saviour to his followers, "If any man come to me and hate 
not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, 
amd sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.** 



♦ 



190 



For if the explanation, which has been given, to the expression 
i; Esau have I hated,*' be not correct, the authority of Jesus may 
be drawn to vindicate the basest, vilest feelings, the human heart 
is capable of entertaining, and this in direct contradiction to the 
well known averment, " Whosoever hateth his brother is a mur- 
derer," and to various other passages inculcating parental, filial, 
fraternal and connubial love. While upon the supposition of its 
accuracy, the requisition of our Lord is perfectly intelligible, and. 
strictly conformable to what he has elsewhere said, " He that loveth 
father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that 
loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me." 

I have here examined the account of Jacob and Esau's relative 
situation in the favour of God, not because it is more readily and 
satisfactorily explained than other texts brought to verify the dogma 
of irrespective decrees; but because upon a cursory perusal it 
is perhaps most likely to create erroneous impressions with those, 
that are either disinclined or unable to interpret scripture by scrip- 
ture. Did my limits permit; to demonstrate that the epistles of 
Paul are equally free from these modern speculations, or rather 
revived reveries of Augustin, would not be the less feasible or 
conclusive. The election of the Apostle has an undoubted refer- 
ence to the admission of the Gentiles to the privileges of the gospel 
on its rejection by the Jews; who, from being a chosen and pecu- 
liar people, were, by their spontaneous renunciation of the blessed 
Jesus, deprived of the enviable distinction, in order to share its 
benefits with the despised posterity of Esau, in due time, breaking 
the spiritual yoke of Jacob from their necks, and so far recovering 
the birthright of their ancestor, as to inherit alike the promises 
made unto Abraham. In this point of view, the Jews as a nation 
were once the elect of God, and are so described, when multitudes 
of their number were whdUy destitute of divine and saving grace: 
and in this point of view, the Gentiles have succeeded to be the 
elect of God, when it is to be feared scarcely a less proportion are 
sadly unconscious of the inestimable benefits they enjoy; and 
whose condemnation will unquestionably be the more disastrous, 
from the very circumstance of their election, to a knowledge of 
Christ, being insufficient to put "a new spirit** within them, to 
••take away the stony heart out of*- their *' flesh, and give" they* 
" a heart of flesh .*" 



191 



How idle then to convert national into individual dispensations, 
from the election of the great body of the Gentiles, to infer that of 
private persons. Even the rapid glance I have taken must convince 
you of the absence of all scriptural evidence in its favour, and 
nothing is more certain than the destructive, demoralizing conse- 
quences attending the belief of a divine and unchangeable fore- 
ordination of whatsoever comes to pass, 

With those, who have already obtained the one thing needful ; 
who are truly born again and confederate with the spirit of Christ, 
it may not have a very injurious tendency, So long as the perfec- 
tion of reason remains a desideratum, many untenable hypotheses 
will continue to be framed, where there is no sympathy for vice or 
irreligion, and that, when sincerely entertained, it becomes us to 
expose without impeaching the practical faith and holiness of their 
defenders. More than this, it would however be criminal to concede, 
For when the circulation of errour, even under the most honest con- 
victions of its truth, is known to be followed by calamitous effects to 
the world of sinners; it is the duty of all, who minister in holy 
things to investigate, not so much the motives which give it curren- 
cy, as the validity of its claims upon human credence. They may, 
and they should, caution a fellow labourer to beware how he propa- 
gates a doctrine, which the earliest Christians never thought of, 
and which innumerable theologians have treated as a false induc- 
tion from a few insulated texts not happily compared with the gen- 
eral scope of the inspired writings. And yet, they must mainly 
importune the sinner to beware, how he receives for truth a system 
of predestination, that being utterly subversive of free agency., 
destroys effectually the doctrine of accountability, with the person- 
al morality and immorality of all our actions. 

I know that this is a corollary warmly denied by its supporters^ 
but it is a denial, that they cannot sustain by any successful appeal 
to reason, any successful effort to reconcile as glaring a paradox as 
was ever seriously advanced. Here they acknowledge their in- 
ability, and did this merely arise from the incomprehensibility of the 
subject, because, like the divine nature, it is transcendental, in other 
words, above our intellectual kerr. it would form no insurmountable 
obstacle to its reception. But when it absolutely contradicts even- 
admitted principle of ratiocination , every semblance of probability 
and even of Do>«ibllitv. there can be no danger in reiiounein.o' it. as 



192 



a, creed, that never was and never will be applied to any valuable or 
practical purpose. 

It may indeed often imbolden the sinner to linger in his headlong 
career to destruction. To him, it may prove an emollient tempora- 
ry balm; it may cicatrize the wounds of his conscience, to be per- 
suaded, that his guilty conduct results from a fatal and incontrolla- 
ble necessity. But happily for all truly pious men, they never rely 
upon a personal decree of election, as if it could justify their avoid- 
ance of a sober, righteous, and godly life. They rather prefer to 
be " followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the 
promises."' It is in this manner, that they exhibit their saving 
knowledge of Christ, and it is thus, that every unsanctified predes- 
tinarian must eventually believe and obey, or he will never be wel- 
comed into the blissful presence of Him, " Who will render to every 
man according to his, deeds: To them who, by patient continuance 
in well-doing, seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, eternal 
life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, 
but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, 
and also of the Gentile : But glory, honour, and peace, to every man 
that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For 
there is no respect of persons with God." 

And if no respect of persons, Brethren, if the uncompromising 
language of the scriptures be, " not the hearers of the law, are just 
before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified;*'' then, as I 
before remarked, he must look altogether to character; he can ac- 
cept no man's person ; upon character he must predicate his decrees ; 
and upon character, growing out of free choice and not irresistible 
fate, award the respective issues of eternity. Such is the doctrine 
of the bible. Such is the doctrine, which the Church prefers to the 
gloomy opinions of the French reformer. And if for this she is to 
be traduced, the universal diffusion of the truth can alone relieve 
her from the envenomed tongue of calumny. Her sentiments will 
not be surrendered. Like the holy oracles from which they are 
educed, her articles of religion will steadfastly resist all the en- 
croachments of heresy and delusion. 

There is however one cause of misconception upon this subject, 
which I must not neglect to ' otice. A proper line of demarcation 
is not generally preserved between the peculiarities of Calvin, and 



193 



those leading doctrines of the cross, which he only maintains in com- 
mon with the orthodox divines of ever)" age; and the consequence 
is, that the Church often meets with opposition from persons, who if 
better informed would not withold from her the tribute of their es= 
teem. 

Be it therefore remembered, that the peculiarities in ques- 
tion are these, the belief in total depravity; in partial redemption; 
in unconditional election and reprobation; in irresistible grace and 
instantaneous conversion ; and in the final, or more correctly, the 
certain perseverance of the saints. All of them, doctrines unknown 
to our articles, and that should be carefully distinguished from the 
radical and essential principles of the gospel, to which every faithful 
minister is accustomed to take heed, as well to preserve himself, as 
the souls committed to his care, in all things pertaining to eternal 
life. 

And yet, how often have they been confounded with these last, 
with sentiments purely evangelical, and revealed from heaven: 
How often has the ambassador for Christ, besought his hearers, and 
prayed them in Christ's stead be ye reconciled unto God ; repent 
ye of your sins ; deplore your natural corruption ; desire of God in 
earnest prayer to change and renew the deadness of your affections, 
to infuse into your hearts the faith that worketh by love, and above 
all, to purify your souls in the blood of the Lamb, that taketh away 
the sins of the world : How often has he enforced these topicks 
with the solemn sanctions of an eternal judgment according to 
righteous ; and then, how promptly has he been denounced for his 
enthusiasm, his fanaticism, his terrorism, and probably with a 
view to crown the climax of opprobrium, how has he been reviled 
for his Calvinism. 

But what pitiable, what lamentable infatuation is this: To con= 
jure into being some huge misshapen mass of deformity, and ming- 
ling with its crudities the blessed religion of Christ, to give the un- 
natural compound some uncouth and frightful name, and immedi- 
ately discard it for a bugbear and a lie. We might as well reject 
all truth, because it has at times been made to coalesce with errour» 
On such ground, protestants might renounce their Saviour, since 
his worship is divided with the Catholick ; Christians abjure their 
God, since his name and attributes are known and honoured by the 
Jew. 

2B 



It should therefore be a matter of extreme caution with every - 
man, how he trifles with sacred things, and how he resolves them 
into the mere speculations of the human mind. Such speculations 
may be ingenious, and yet false; they may be abstruse and erudite, 
and yet nothing worth. Universally may they be disowned, with- 
out impairing the piety, or endangering the salvation of the soul. 
But at the same time, let each individual be sure, that neither pas- 
sion, nor prejudice, nor ignorance is suffered to triumph over his 
understanding, to the disparagement of those words of eternal life, 
which, so far from being exclusively Calvinistick, have been ad- 
hered to by the friends of Jesus from the earliest promulgation of 
the gospel ; those words of eternal life, which the Church ever has 
recognised, and which she never will relinquish, so long as she 
retains a sanctuary for her children, and a faithful minister to stand 
at her altar. 4 

She is indeed catholick and enlightened in her views of religion^ 
but in nothing does she presume to be more so, than its divine 
Author; in nothing will she sooner accommodate herself to the lax 
principles of some, than to the excessively rigid and austere senti- 
ments of others. But her course is the happy medium pursued by 
Christ himself; in appearance simple without baldness, and beauti- 
ful without pageantry ; in spirit humble without cant, and grave 
without hypocrisy ; in doctrine liberal without licentiousness, and 
tenacious without bigotry. Whoever repairs to her, with other views 
and prepossessions,, must either rescind them, or find no pleasure in 
her communion. He must walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleas- 
ing, or ho will obtain no passport from her to the heavenly world, 

The preceding remarks must have convinced you, that the mel- 
ancholy doctrines of arbitrary election and reprobation have no 
form, nor comeliness, no beauty in her eyes, that she should desire 
them; and with the divine blessing, I propose, upon the ensuing 
sabbath, to prove, that she is equally pure and free from blemish, 
in the remaining articles of her faith. And may Almighty God, of 
his infinite mercy, enable us to discern their truth; may we be in- 
duced to receive them into honest and good hearts; may he grant 
us capacity to understand, wisdom to improve, and grace to obey; 
and to Him, the Father, to the Son, and Holy Ghost, three persons 
and one God, shall be ascribed all the glory, and honour, and praise* 
world without end, Amen. 



SERMON XVI. 



isaiah lxii. I. 

For Zioii*s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I will n ot rest, until the rightco usn ess thereof go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii. 

HAVING concluded a very brief and cursory survey of the 
doctrines of the Church, in relation to the natural corruption of man, 
the extent of Christ's redemption, and the much debated subjects of 
election and reprobation; I am compelled to prolong the investiga-. 
tion, for the purpose of vindicating u the salvation thereof," in some 
other particulars, upon which her opinions are either grossly mis- 
understood or designedly misrepresented, Tgnorance is unques- 
tionably the principal cause; but then the promotion of a sect, the 
interests of a party, come in for their full share of productive capi- 
tal, in the ungracious office of defaming the views, she is solicitous 
to maintain upon the prominent features of the gospel. 

It is said, for example, that we entertain a confident persuasion 
of the inherent capacity of the sinner to work out his own salvation, 
and that the Holy Spirit is by no means an indispensable agent in 
the process of conversion . But where our accusers obtain their au- 
thority for a charge, so grave and imposing, is to me entirely un- 
known. If true, it would indeed destroy all our pretensions to the 
Christian name, and convict us of what the Apostles would have 
boldly pronounced a damnable heresy. We deny it with deserved^ 
and I trust with holy indignation. No more can we advance one 
single step towards the attainment of the graces of religion, without 
the assistance of the Spirit of our God, than deprived of his provi- 
dential care and protection, we could inspire one breath of air, or 
move a muscle of the body. But are we here corporeally depen- 
dant? So in the more noble functions and susceptibilities of the 
soul, we are spiritually dependant ; the Holy Ghost is our indispen- 
sable guide and director: th^ purveyor of every goQd thought, and 
word, and deed = 



196 



Listen to the strong and plenary language of our tenth article f • 
'The condition of man after the fall of Adam, is such, that he 
cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and 
good works, to faith, and calling upon God: wherefore we have no 
power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God, without 
the grace of God, by Christ preventing" that is, preceding " us, that 
we may have a good will, and working with us, when we have that 
good will." Does this look like winning Christ and heaven, by our 
own unaided efforts? Can our fellow Christians present us with a 
more humble acknowledgment of their reliance upon the divine 
assistance? Let them produce it; let an inquisition be held, and if 
it should prove scriptural and orthodox, Ave will gladly embrace it ; 
we have no objection to the most positive contradiction of mere 
human ability to choose the good, and refuse the evil, 

All that we contend for is this. In the order of nature, God hath 
given us power to elevate the arm in compliance with our own vo- 
lition, and in the order of grace, he has equally bestowed upon us 
the power to learn his will, and observe all things whatsoever he 
hath commanded us. Upon no other principle can we account for 
the well known remonstrance addressed to the Jewish nation, "O 
Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help," or that 
yet more severe reprimand pronounced, by our Saviour, against 
the unbelieving Jews, " Ye will not come to me, that ye might 
have life." Declarations, which plainly indicate the necessity of 
human co-operation, in attaining the virtues of the divine life, and 
as plainly evince, that the inclination of God to save is only frus- 
trated by the disinclination of man to obey. Power he gives, ca- 
pacity he does not withhold, the Spirit is perpetually admonishing 
us to accept the overtures of redeeming love; but whatever may 
have been the character of Paul's conversion, the age of miracles 
has terminated ; supernatural coercion is no longer employed. We 
have it submitted to our personal choice to become penitent, and 
faithful, and obedient, and in case of failure, can ascribe it to no 
other cause, than our fatal opposition to the will of heaven. Irre- 
sistible grace is an invention of modern times. He, that waits for 
it, may as soon calculate upon gathering a redundant harvest from 
fallow ground. If he does not put forth the best labour of his head 
and heart, he will only sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. 



197 



There is however another form, in which the same charge is vir- 
tually brought against us. We are accused of disowning the new 
birth, or rather of limiting it to the external act of baptism. Upon 
what foundation? Because in our baptismal offices, immediately 
after the sacrament is administered, it is said, " Seeing now, dearly 
beloved Brethren, that this child is regenerate and u these persons 
are regenerate, and grafted into the body of Christ's Church.'" But 
a more illiberal criticism was never offered; a more disingenuous- 
appeal to the prejudices of the uninformed never made. When 
will the individuals, who seemingly love to misinterpret our lan- 
guage, learn to be candid and magnanimous? How often are we 
to be required to refute an oft refuted calumny? 

If there were the slightest real cause for its circulation, there 
would be no applause from the Christian world, which they might 
not justly challenge, for their unremitted assiduity in decrying a 
Church capable of countenancing so gross a fallacy, as to identify 
the shadow, with the substance of religion; as to confound the 
outward and visible sign, with the inward and spiritual grace of 
holy baptism. But no such thing: We maintain no such fallacy. 
Earnestly contending for the faith once delivered to the saints, we 
rather insist upon the absolute necessity of being spiritually born 
again, in order to our acceptance with God, and ultimate enjoyment 
of the kingdom of heaven. In applying the word "regenerate" 
to the baptized, we are indeed justified by the authority of Paul, 
who speaks of the outward symbol, as "the washing of regenera- 
tion," and the inward grace, as the "renewing of the Holy Ghost." 
And when infants are thus brought to Christ, its reception imp'ies 
a change of state, a transmission from the world into his kingdom; 
when adults present themselves, we are bound to believe, in the 
judgment of charity, that they come forward with convicted hearts 
and sanctified minds. If otherwise, then are they only regenerate 
in tho lower and ceremonial, and not in the higher and spiritual 
sense. The distinction is happily expressed in our twenty seventh 
article; "'Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of 
difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others that 
be not Christened : but it is also a sign of regeneration, or new 
birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive baptism 
rightly are grafted into the Church : the promises of the forgive- 
ness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy 



198 



Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed: faith is confirmed, and grace 
increased by virtue of prayer unto God." 

- How idle then to impute to us a belief in mere sacramental re= 
generation! How idle! When a thorough change of the heart 
and its affections is constantly urged upon the hearer, and described, 
as " A death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness : For 
being by nature born in sin, and the children of wrath, we are 
hereby made the children of grace :" When the qualifications re= 
quired of adult persons, previous to their baptism, are these, " Re- 
pentance whereby they forsake sin; and faith, whereby they stead- 
fastly believe the promises of God made to them in that sacra- 
ment." Whoever misconstrues language forcible and unequivo- 
cal as this, must be determined to misconstrue. Whoever, secretly 
insinuates or openly declares, that we have no faith in the instru- 
mentality of the Holy Spirit in producing these blessed results, 
can from his own feelings derive but a very faint conception of the 
sincerity, with which, after the ordinance of baptism is celebrated, 
we address this prayer to our heavenly Father ; " Give thy holy 
spirit to these persons ; that being now born again, and made 
heirs of everlasting salvation, through our Lord Jesus Christ, they 
may continue thy servants, and attain thy promises, through'the 
same Lord Jesus Christ thy Son." 

The truth is, that there is no Church, there is no ministry set 
for the defence of the gospel, more strenuous in contending for a 
radical change of nature; a change of a moral, as well as of an 
intellectual character; a change in the habits, inclinations, and 
delights of the soul. We have no confidence in loud professions, 
none in mere ceremonial compliances. We are for making Chris- 
tians such as Paul, as dead to sin, and as alive to righteousness. 
We are for counselling you, Brethren, "as the truth is in Jesus, that 
ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which 
is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the 
spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after 
God is created in righteousness and true holiness." And is all this 
happily effected ? Instead of imputing it to unassisted human ca- 
pabilities, we gratefully acknowledge, it is only "through the 
Spirit," that man can "mortify the deeds of the body;" it is "the 
law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus," that doth make us "fre§ 
from the law of sin and death." 



199 



Another charge, frequently advanced against the Church and its 
clergy is, that we decry the doctrine of justification by faith, and 
prefer to attribute our salvation to the merit of our good works. 
And if the words of an enemy are to be credited, there can be no 
<loubt of our guilt ; we are wonderfully reprobate concerning the 
true faith, and have need to be taught what are the first principles 
of the doctrine of Christ. But what is our own statement? To 
whom do we profess to look for salvation ? What is the tenour of 
the article most cordially and unreservedly embraced by us? " We 
are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith; and not for our own works or 
deservings. Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a 
most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more largely 
is expressed in the homily of justification." Christ Jesus is con- 
sequently the sole object of our reliance, the only Being through 
whose merits and intercession, we anticipate the gift of eternal 
life. 

Strictly speaking faith itself is far from meritorious. It does not 
include the principle of our redemption. It is not the original 
cause of our reconciliation with God. It can do no more than ena- 
ble us to lay hold on the precious promises made us through Christ, 
He alone constitutes our hope, and joy, and crown of rejoicing 
He alone, through his unsinning obedience, his incarnation, suffer- 
ings, and death ; he alone deserves and enjoys with us the high 
honour of being "the way, the truth, and the life," "the end of the 
law for righteousness to every one that believeth." This is our 
estimate of him; this our construction of the conditional efficacy 
of faith; for this, we pronounce "'justification by faith only" to be 
" a most wholesome doctrine and very full of comfort." Insomuch, 
that to yield it up would impair a material feature, which distin- 
guishes the covenant of grace: a feature through which, our frail 
and imperfect services, when proceeding out of a true penitenf 
heart and lively faith, are mercifully accepted in lieu of that strict 
undeviating performance of the divine will, which it is, both natur- 
ally and morally, impossible for us to accomplish. "If we say that 
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us- our sins,, 
and to o-leanae us from all unrighteousness." 



200 



1 am indeed free to assert, that were it even practicable for us to . 
lead a perfectly pure and sinless life, nothing but the most monstrous 
arrogance could ever induce us to claim the never ending rewards 
of heaven, as a matter of right, justly accruing to us, for the ex- 
emplary holiness of perhaps an hour, a day, or at most, a few years. 
The disparity would be too great; the disproportion between the 
thing claimed and the thing performed far too obvious to be recon- 
ciled even with our own notions of retributive justice ; and there- 
fore we should not hesitate a single moment in arriving at the con- 
clusion distinctly avowed in the epistle to the Ephesians, "By 
grace are ye saved, through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is 
the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast/' 

Less than this, reason itself should not fail to teach, and the 
Church does not speak more loftily, She recommends not to her 
members the deplorable predicament of " being ignorant of God's 
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteous- 
ness.'" She knows very well, that * without faith it is impossible 
to please God." She is thoroughly persuaded, that if her clergy 
were to surrender so essential apart of the Christian doctrine, they 
might as well throw aside their bibles, as well sever the thread of 
accountability, and cease to urge upon your hopes and fears the 
bliss of heaven, and the pains of hell. Hear her own deliberate 
opinion embracing the case of the impenitent and unbelieving; 
" Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his 
Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of 
faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive 
grace, or (as the school-authors say) deserve grace of congruity : 
yea rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and com- 
manded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of 
sin." 

Neither let any man doubt it, who is able to trace effects to their 
causes ; who is capable of appreciating works by the motives, which 
produce them. Let him rather reflect, that actions precisely simi- 
lar to the eye, like donations to the poor for example, may yet pro- 
ceed from very different views; and that although we are unable 
to distinguish the evil from the good, Omniscient wisdom is still 
sure to penetrate the secret impulses of the soul, and determine at 
a glance, which results from mere ostentation, and which from a 
truly liberal and charitable spirit. "For the Lord seeth not a? 



201 



man seeih; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the 
Lord Jooketh on the heart." A circumstance evincing the necessity 
of connecting good motives with ail our apparently good actions, 
and that satisfactorily explains the preceding article of the Church, 
in accordance with both reason and scripture. For wherever the 
intention is bad, our conduct will not bear the scrutiny of the All- 
seeing eye. Wherever we are destitute of the faith in Jesus exact- 
ed in the scriptures, there we may be certain of displeasing God, 
there the seemingly fairest virtues will spring from worldly max- 
ims and prove of no avail at the judgment day of Him, who hath 
said, " Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I 
confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever 
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father 
which is in heaven." 

And yet, Brethren, our Church embraces no crude and barren 
faith. She is no promoter of antinomian principles. She denies 
not the " faithful saying" of St. Paul, " These things I will that thou 
affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be 
careful to maintain good works* These things are good and profitable 
unto men." Her sentiments on the contrary are worthy of her 
origin. They are practical and sound, alike removed from laxity 
of morals, and the unproductive cry of Lord, Lord. You shall 
judge for yourselves ; " Albeit that good works, which are the fruits 
of faith, and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins, 
and endure the severity of God's judgment ; yet are they pleasing 
and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a 
true and lively faith; insomuch that by them a lively faith may be 
as evidently known, as a tree discerned by the fruit." 

How excellent in principle! How admirably adapted in prac- 
tice, to promote the interests and ensure the welfare of society ! 
Let Christians cherish such sentiments ; let these control the con- 
duct of life, and no more will religion be wounded by the hands of 
its professed friends, no more will the proverbial outcry to the pre- 
judice of morality cause the worldling to suspect their integrity. 
You here perceive the true foundation, upon which the superstruc- 
ture of good works must be erected. They possess no abstract 
merit, and they must be associated with the faith of Christ. " For 
as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead 
also." " Yea. a man may say ? Thou hast faith, and I have works: 

2C 



show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith 
by ray works. Thou believest that there is one God : thou doest 
well : the devils also believe, and tremble. But will thou know, O 
vain man, that faith without works is dead?" They are the beat 
evidence we can obtain of our recovery from the bondage of sin 
to the liberty of the sons of God. "A good tree cannot bring forth 
evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.*' They 
are an undoubted standard, by which we may prove our own selves, 
and safely determine, that we have not believed in vain, provided 
k>ve to God and love to our neighbour have thoroughly pervaded 
the heart, and meliorated its otherwise selfish and unruly passions. 

Others may fondly imagine their conversion to have been the 
work of a moment. They may principally credit it, from the idea 
of being able to point out the precise instant of its operation upon 
their passive souls, little heeding the memorable remark to the 
master in Israel, " The wind blow T eth where it listeth, and thou near- 
est the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and 
whither it goeth : so is every one that is born- of the Spirit!" But 
without entering upon these subtleties, let us be content with a 
safer and better guide, than that, which may finally prove to be the 
day-dream of a wild and disordered mind. Let us only feel, that 
we have made our peace with God, when we experience that the- 
fruits of peace unto holiness-are exemplified in the practical piety 
and benevolence of our lives. 

I know how prevalent the idea is, that religion is easily obtained. 
I know that with many, the presumptuous sinner of to-day is by 
no means incapacitated from becoming the holy saint of to-morrow, 
1 also know, that,. for rejecting such doctrines, our Church and her 
ministers ate regarded with a jealous eye, and inveighed against 
as possessing the form of godliness, without the power thereof 
But while we are constant in the belief, and happy ki the convic- 
tion, that all men may partake of that grace of God, which bring- 
eth salvation,, yet are we decidedly of opinion, that vigorous per- 
sonal efforts are previously requisite, in order to obtain the victory 
over the corrupt passions and propensities of our nature. Prayer 
is essential ; secret, ardent, and persevering prayer. But how ar- 
duous is the duty to unpractised lips, and minds unlettered in the 
knowledge of God. Faith is essential. But how is it to be se - 
cured at a moment's warning, with scarcely a prior thought bestow 



203 



t3d upon the evidence, on which rests the credibility of the gospej. 
Repentance is essentia] , But what confidence is to be placed in 
that repentance, which is yet to. be tested by a complete reforma= 
tion of life and manners, 

There is indeed a mode of obviating all these objections. It is 
easy to resort to certain imaginary decrees, and, reposing full con= 
fidenee in them, to draw largely and expeditiously upon the power 
and influence of irresistible and all-conquering grace, But then 
what becomes of the admonition, " Strive to enter in at the strait 
gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not 
be able with innumerable others, clearly intimating the formida« 
fcle impediments to the way everlasting, which the sinner encoun- 
ters in the depravity of his nature, and its inveterate attachment 
to the idols of this world? Amid all the odium undeservedly cast 
upon our communion, I do verily believe, that we demand far high- 
er evidence of the soul's conversion, than most of our accusers. 
They often appear to be satisfied with the sighs and tears, the re- 
pentance, prayers, and faith of a day. The related experience of 
an hour is by no means an uncommon criterion, through which they 
are ready to welcome the returning prodigal, as a new creature in 
Christ Jesus. But we are apprehensive^, that these impressions may 
pass away, as the morning cloud and the early dew. We are con= 
fldentj that a life of holiness is the only legitimate evidence of our 
having actually taken up the cross of Christ, and followed him in 
the regeneration. 

To be plain, Brethren, we are doubtful of sudden conversions,, 
We fear, that the feelings are more excited, and the imagination in- 
flamed, than the judgment convinced or the heart purified. It is 
not, that we dislike revivals of religion. Every faithful minister 
of Jesus fervently prays, that the hearts of all men may bow be- 
fore the golden sceptre of Immanuel. It is not, that we hesitate to 
receive the ever to be remembered scripture, a Marvel not that I 
said unto thee, Ye must be born again," By us, it is embraced 
without the slightest reservation, and considered as demanding the 
new birth, as an invariable prerequisite to the attainment of the 
kingdom of heaven. 

But are we charged with excessive languor and apathy in the 
good cause of Christ? Is our religion questioned, and our Church 
pronounced unfavourable to its growth, because we do not after 



£04 



long intervals flock in troops to the Redeemer's standard ( I skll 
be exculpated in your eyes, if, with decorum and a charitable spirit^ 
I repel the imputations, with such considerations as these: We can- 
not, with the view of producing a general excitement, adopt any 
expedients unknown to the scriptures, and unauthorized by the 
practice of Christ and his Apostles. Equally opposed to precipi- 
tation on the one hand, and to procrastination on the other, we 
cannot avoid recommending, that, in the most important transac- 
tion of this life, the. greatest care should be taken, that our resolu- 
tions are deliberately formed, our principles clearly understood, 
our motives fairly canvassed, our afTections deeply engaged, and 
our hearts firmly set upon witnessing a good confession before God 
and man. 

Persuaded, that the operations of the Spirit are gradual and not 
instantaneous, we make a material distinction between convictions 
of sin, and the actual passage from death unto life. So that, if 
large numbers, within a short period and with little previous re- 
flection, were to present themselves in order to partake of the bread, 
which we break, and of the cup of blessing, which we bless ; it 
would be felt, that many had probably mistaken the commencement 
lor the consummation of grace. We should not doubt their sin- 
cerity. We should consider them perfectly honest and conscien- 
tious, alive to their dearest interests, and convinced of having ot-. 
tained the one thing needful. 

But pass some few months, and in our opinion, the religion of 
those, who together commenced the race of glory, and honour, and 
immortality, with the like fair and brilliant prospects, would exhibit 
a widely variant and discordant aspect. Some of them would have 
cherished their first impressions. They would have made diligen t 
use of all the various means of grace, and in this way ensuring the 
divine blessing upon them, they would have gradually perfected the 
work, already supposed to have been finished. Others however 
would have lost their first love. They would have relaxed by little 
and little from their original zeal, and at length perceiving their 
religious duties to become more and more irksome, they would 
either have abandoned them under the idea of their having been self 
deluded ; or else have consoled themselves with the flattering doc- 
trine of their final perseverance, 



20d 



Oar opinion is, that in all such cases there is experienced, at the 
time of making a publick profession of faith in Christ, nothing more 
than sudden and violent convictions of sin; that those convictions 
may or may not prove the harbingers of ultimate conversion ; but 
let them eventuate as they may, that the first class will always look 
back to this period, as the epoch of their regeneration, and the 
second be considered by their friends to have been grossly, though 
unintentionally deceived. We cannot therefore encourage such a 
precipitate union with the Church of Christ. When connected with 
the favourite system from which it springs, it reminds us of the 
oracles of Greece, so ambiguous in their predictions, as in no event 
to incur the slightest danger of remaining unfulfilled. The stead- 
fastness of the one set of converts is accounted for, on the principle 
of their having been really born again; the apostacy of the other, 
on the ground of having mistaken the nature of their spiritual ex- 
perience. The whole theory is consequently constructed in so in- 
genious a manner, so admirably adapted to any sequel, that it is 
almost impossible to convince them of its fallacy. They who do not 
fall away are firm believers in instantaneous regeneration ; some of 
those, who do, are unwilling to abandon it in the hope that their 
delinquency is but temporary, and the residue are left to acknow- 
ledge, that they never were converted. 

I do not wonder that the best and most intelligent divines, among 
our dissenting brethren, are beginning to detect and expose the un- 
happy delusion. No one will question the competency of Dr. Mason, 
whom I have before quoted, to form an accurate opinion upon the 
subject. His language is peculiarly striking, and I cannot resist the 
inclination to transcribe it. According to him ; " Some, in fine, 
think that religious experience is the sole test of admission into the 
Church, provided a man can satisfy them of his conversion, (and 
they are not always hard to be satisfied ;) if he can relate a plausi- 
ble story of his feelings, can talk of his distress and of his comfort, 
and has learnt to deal in joys and ecatasies, it is enough. How he 
came by his experience, he probably cannot tell, and his spiritual 
guides often omit to ask. And yet this is often the point, upon 
which turns the discrimination between true and false religion; 
between rational experience and fanaticism ; between good influ- 
ences of the Spirit of God, and their counterfeits. It is lamentable, 
that so a proportion of conversions? which are the fruit of 



20G 



tumultuous meetings, and the theme of newspaper praise, prove to 
be of this class. Dark views, gross ignorance, and even flat con- 
tradictions in the simplest truths of Christianity, are no obstacle. 
Thousands go from sin to God : from nature to grace : from condem- 
nation to pardon : from despondency to rapture : and when interro* 
gated about the process by which this marvellous transition was 
accomplished, have little or nothing to say, but that TifEY have 
pelt so. And what is still more astonishing, they have bl^en trans- 
lated from darkness to light without being illuminated! For the 
uttering of incoherent exclamation, and the chattering over a ^set of 
phrases, though accompanied with vehement passions, with shrieks, 
and fallings, and faintings, and fits, and trances, must not pass for 
divine illumination, nor divine influence of any sort. When we 
consider the mechanism of the human affections, and how rapidly 
emotion is propagated by sympathy through promiscuous crowds, 
we can explain all the phenomena, which in this matter have lately 
attracted the publick wonder, without recourse to supernatural agen- 
cy: and must be convinced that nothing can be more precarious, 
than the tenure by which these sudden converts hold their profes- 
sion," 

Nor let it be thought, that the sentiments of this celebrated preach- 
er, are perfectly detached and isolated, Dr. Beecher, a no less 
celebrated and able congregational divine, has borne an equally de- 
cided testimony, in his remarks upon some late extraordinary revi- 
vals in the presbyterian Churches of New-York. He has reduced 
his observations to several heads, and upon this, " The hasty rer 
cognition of persons as converted, upon their own judgment, with- 
out interrogation or evidence,"' he thus writes, " Revivals may be- 
come so great and rapid, as to make it proper that those experiencing 
a change, in the course of a day, should meet in one place, not 
to be recognised as converts, but to be examined, cautioned, and 
instructed: for the more powerful and rapid is the work of grace in a 
community, the more certain is the existence of sympathy and all 
the causes of self-deception; and the more imperious the necessi- 
ty of caution, unless we would replenish the Church with hypo- 
crites, to keep her agitated by discipline, or covered with shame 
by the neglect of it." 

The writer's opinions are the more valuable, because he is an ar* 
dejit promoter of temperate and judicious revivals, but for those of * 



207 



wild, inflammable description, he has no respect^ he is satisfied of 
their having in some degree acquired that complexion among his 
presbyterian friends, and after many admirable thoughts, draws 
towards a conclusion in these forcible terms ; " I have only to add 
that all the evil may, with perfect ease be avoided, without dimin- 
ishing the true spirit and power of a revival ; but in every respect 
shall increase it. There is no need of praying as if God and man 
were deaf, or of wallowing on the floor, and frothing at the mouth, 
as if filled with hydrophobia, instead of the Spirit of God ; nor any 
harm in kindness and gentleness, nor any benefit in harsh and se- 
vere epithets. The state of man may be explained to him so that 
he shall believe and feel, better than by calling him a devil, a viper, 
or a serpent. There may be as great directness as is needed, or as 
is possible without indecorum, and the gospel may be preached 
faithfully and attended with the power of God, without groaning in 
prayer and crying " amen," and without female prayers and ex- 
hortations, and without that spiritual fride, which never fails to 
attend pressing the mass of the community out of their places, and 
shaking together in one chaldron of effervescence all the passions 
of all the classes in human society."" And again, " Dear Brethren 
in Christ - you must not, for a moment suppose that I do not fervently 
love you ; or that I ascribe to you in extenso, all the defects to which 
I have alluded. But that I have drawn the outlines of a moral charr s 
which such a disastrous revival as your present course could not 
fail to lead to, would amply fill up, I have not a doubt." 

Such then, Brethren, are the opinions of two of the strongest men 
to be found in the dissenting Churches, in regard to the excesses 
committed under the guise of religion. The opinions themselves I 
do not hesitate to approve. The language in which they are ex* 
pressed may be objectionable, and I do not propose to become res- 
ponsible either for its sarcasm or its caustick severity. But cer- 
tainly from the enemies of the Church, I have the same rio-ht to 
avail myself of self-accusing concessions, that the conqueror has to 
wield the weapons of a vanquished foe; and I desire no more con- 
vincing evidence to sustain the views entertained by us, in relation 
to the extravagancies, which have become extremely prevalent un- 
der the popular and imposing name of revivals. I have not that 
confidence in them, which I should have, if they were more sober, 
^lightened,, and durable: if the soul was not stormed through th^ 



208 



imagination; it* the heart was not supposed to be quickened w a 
moment, and the full-grown saint manufactured, in the twinkling of 
an eye, out of the votary of the world, the veteran in guilt, and of 
course, the ignoramus in divinity. 

But I will not stoop to the language of invective. Our Christian 
Brethren, so far as we are concerned, have an undoubted right to 
follow the dictates of their own judgment, and sincerely do I rejoice, 
whenever their labours are attended with the salvation of immortal 
souls. My object is purely defensive. It is to justify the Church 
for pursuing what we claim the privilege of believing to be a more 
scriptural mode of instruction,- and although it must be acknow- 
ledged to enlist in its favour far less excitement and enthusiasm 
yet is it to be seriously borne in mind, that while the murmuring of 
the rivulet is heard, the deep majestick stream glides in peace and 
quietness to its ocean home. And long may it continue to flow and 
fertilize with its waters the vineyard of the Lord. Even from the 
summary sketc^i I have drawn, of the more important articles of our 
faith, you must be convinced, that purer doctrines were never im- 
bodied from the inspired volume, and that we have abundant reason 
to characterize them, as " the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
but the truth." 

Never then, let us surrender them in compliance with the errours 
and prejudices of others. They were adopted with the utmost de- 
liberation, when our American became a distinct branch of the ho- 
ly Apostolick Church, and by a convention, that understood their 
import precisely as they have been interpreted in your hearing. A 
circumstance, that evidently exonerates us from the stigma of in- 
consistency, to which I have before alluded. For had they coun- 
tenanced a single ingredient in the poisoned chalice of Calvinism, 
it would have been expunged. Had it been deemed practicable to 
have improved them in any one particular, the time was favourable, 
the ability ample, and the authority undoubted. But no improve- 
ment could be suggested; they were preserved unbroken and entire ; 
and still continuing to receive the approbation of our minds and 
consciences, they bid fair to be the true faith of Churchmen to the 
end of time. 

I will only subjoin my fervent prayer to God, that to the extent 
of our day and generation, our talents and resources of every de- 
scription* we may be included within the number. They will ena-. 



209 



bie us to shun all those ill concealed rocks of heresy and schism 
upon which so many immortal souls have made everlasting ship- 
wreck of their faith and holiness. The brilliant lamp of their 
salvation will guide us in peace and safety to our journey's end. 
And when at last we are called upon to exchange the Church mili- 
tant, for the Church triumphant, it will be seen, in the presence of 
an assembled throng of angels, ready to bear us on exulting wing 
to the heavenly mansions,- it will be seen, that, compiled in unde- 
viating conformity to the doctrines, which are according to godli- 
ness, they have materially contributed to work out for us an " exceed- 
ing and eternal weight of glory. 1 ' Amen. 



•SERMON XVII. 



isaiah lxii. i. 

For ZioiCs sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness 5 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

THERE is yet remaining one doctrine of the Church, to 
which upon reflection I have concluded, Brethren, to direct your 
attention. It is not, that its belief is absolutely essential to the 
Christian character. It is not, but that many precious souls will 
hereafter enjoy the blessedness of those, whose sins are forgiven, 
who shall have existed here below perfectly ignorant of its nature, 
and therefore deprived of the capacity to yield to the biblical evi- 
dence upon which it is founded. But the doctrine is interesting in 
itself, and requires to be known ; the Church is sometimes rudely 
assailed for admitting it into the articles of her belief; and it cer- 
tainly contradicts one of the most common and popular errours 
prevailing in the age and country, in which we live. 

From their youth up, the great body of the people are taught to 
believe, that immediately after death the departed soul either as- 
cends to heaven or descends to hell ; and never have I witnessed 

2D 



210 



more surprise, than when the idea has been opposed, as entirely . 
groundless and untenable. We are at once suspected of consigning 
the spirits of the dead to a temporary oblivion, or perhaps the pur- 
gatory of the catholick is suggested to the mind of the hearer, and 
he trembles lest the grossness of that fantasy should be attempted 
to be palmed upon his understanding. But no such thing ! We 
reject both the one and the other. As in every particular to which 
I have already adverted, here also we build upon the sure founda- 
tion of holy oracles, and are only astonished at the extraordinary 
facility, with which one of their most obvious intimations is usually 
overlooked. 

I will explain myself at large. Twice on each revolving sab- 
bath we are accustomed to express our belief in the affirmation of 
the creed, commonly called the Apostle^s, respecting our Lord Jesus 
Christ, that " he descended into hell ;" while the third article of 
our religion is conceived in these terms, " As Christ died for us r 
and was buried j so also is it to be believed, that he went down into 
hell." Are these expressions then to be interpreted in a figurative 
or a literal sense ? Are they to be considered as describing an 
event, and designating a place, which exist only in the regions of 
fancy, or such solemn and serious truths, as are worthy of all ac- 
ceptation? I answer, that they are to be interpreted literally. I 
answer, that when we affirm of the blessed Jesus, that " he de- 
scended into hell," we refer to the actual flight and residence of his 
soul, during the period of its separation from his disanimated body. 

Not however, that we give the slightest countenance to the hor* 
rible idea of his visiting the place of torment, and there enduring 
the agonies of the second death. For what concord has Christ 
with Belial, that he should enter the infernal pit ? Or how could we 
then understand the declaration made to the thief upon the Cross • 
f " Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise?" 
Paradise, which is a term indicative of pleasure and not of pain, of 
reward and not of punishment. No, no, when the Saviour of sin - 
ners, at the closing scene of his mortal life, cried out," It is finished;" 
when "he bowed the head and gave up the ghost;" then was fully 
accomplished the entire aggregate of mental and corporeal agony, 
he was content to endure, and all was peace, and happiness, and joy. 

He indeed "descended into hell;" but we are to remember, thai 
Uiis sentence concludes with a word of Saxon derivation. A word ; 



211 



that instead of implying, as it now does, the reverse of heaven, 
originally imported no more than the "Inferi" of the Latins, and 
the "Hades" of the Greeks; that is, in our English tongue, and as 
explained in the rubrick before the creed, " the place of departed 
spirits." In this sense, and in this alone, do we there use it; and 
although its more modern signification may induce some scruples 
ef conscience in the uninformed, the same observation applies to 
no less than eleven passages of the new testament; wherever in- 
deed the original word is "hades," and not "geenna;" both of 
which are translated "hell," in the received version; but while the 
latter indicates the place of eternal misery, the former merely de. 
notes the intermediate state of the soul after death, and prior to the 
general judgment. It includes the Elysium and the Tartarus of 
the poets, and is sufficiently delineated in the parable of the rich 
man and Lazarus to convince us, that it is divided into two sepa= 
rate mansions ; the one being a common receptacle for the souls of 
the righteous; the other, for those of "the ungodly and the sinner." 

So that, when the Church by the adoption of the .creed, and by 
the doctrine of her third article, maintains the actual descent of 
Christ into hell, she only coincides with all Christian antiquity, and 
I may add with almost all protestant divines of any repute, in the 
belief, that his soul was transmitted to Abraham's bosom, or to that 
paradise of God, where the spirits of the righteous exist in the full 
assurance of a final reunion with their slumbering dust, and a sub- 
sequent ascension into the abodes of perennial felicity. The Church 
coincides with these and not these alone; since the same doctrine 
is clearly and satisfactorily deduced from several passages of the 
sacred volume. 

I have already mentioned one, which afibrds irresistible evidence 
of its truth. For when our Saviour addressed the penitent thief 
with the inspiring promise, " To-day shalt thou be with me in para- 
dise;" he could not possibly allude to heaven in the highest sense, 
because, upon his resurrection, he declared to Mary Magdalen, 
" Touch me not ; for I am not yet ascended to my Father : but go to 
my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and 
your Father; and to my God, and your God." To what other re- 
gion then, could he have accompanied his fellow sufferer, immedi- 
ately after death, and previous to his return to life again? I know 
of none, unless we admit the doctrine of an intermediate state fox 
the temporary reception, of di?imbodied spirits.. 



212 



This doctrine is further corroborated by the testimony of St. Petei^ , 
■where he affirms of Christ, that he " hath once suffered for sins, 
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to 
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he 
went and preached unto the spirits in prison. 1 ' Spirits, that were 
not in heaven, because heaven is never characterized as a prison ; 
Spirits, that were not in an ultimate hell, because the light of the 
gospel, and the preaching of the cross, can never penetrate the ever- 
lasting abodes of darkness and despair. But only acknowledge 
the existence of the paradise contended for, and we immediately 
discern the propriety of announcing to the spirits of those just men, 
who died previous to the crucifixion of Christ, that the great work 
of their redemption was at length completely accomplished ; that he 
had liquidated the wages of sin, and ensured their eventual enjoy- 
ment of the kingdom of glory. 

There is also a remarkable passage in the second chapter of the 
Acts, which abundantly verifies the doctrine in question. In the 
course of his address to the men of Israel, the Apostle Peter quotes 
this prophecy from the sixteenth psalm, " Thou wilt not leave my 
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corrup- 
tion.'" He quotes it, with the express reservation, that the patriarch 
David " Spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not 
left in hell, neither his fiesh did see corruption.'" All which was 
gloriously fulfilled in the stupendous miracle of his rising from the 
dead ; when his soul and body separated from each other, by the 
crucifixion, were once more united ; once more fully recognised by 
his faithful adherents, and until the period of his ascension into 
heaven employed as usual, in instructing them in the things per- 
taining to the kingdom of God. Although he had been put to death 
in the flesh, he was quick in the Spirit, and went and preached to 
ihe spirits in prison; but his soul was not left in hell, it did not re 
main in paradise with the soul of the penitent thief; and if not left, 
then it must have been there anteriour to the resurrection. Although 
his crucified body was taken down from the cross, and entombed in 
the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea, yet was it raised from the 
dead by the power of God, and therefore his flesh did not see cor - 
ruption. 

So far indeed as it relates to the human body of Christ, all Chris- 
tians concur in the uniform testimony cf the evangelists, that as it 



213 



rested in hope, so it was raised in glory ; as it was consigned to 
the cearments of the tomb a breathless corpse, so after three days it 
was made alive again, without experiencing the decomposing influ- 
ence of the grave. And if they can furnish another explanation of 
the place, where in the interim his soul resided ; a place, in which 
it was not left, and that is evidently described by the Apostle, as 
equally unsuited to its prolonged abode as was the grave to that of 
his body, and consequently it could not be heaven; I am content to 
listen to their argument, and if it does not prove better than I an- 
ticipate, to refute it with the utmost ease. 

For this purpose, I could now adduce many other passages of 
similar import to the preceding, profusely scattered throughout the 
gospels and epistles, but inasmuch as those already produced suffi- 
ciently authenticate the proposition, that " As Christ died for us, 
and was buried ; so also is it to be believed, that he went down into 
hell;" I shall proceed to some few remarks, that are more immedi- 
ately connected with the concerns of the living. 

And certainly the view I have taken destroys the almost insup- 
portable idea of a temporary annihilation of our existence. It con- 
vinces us, that if Christ went and preached to the spirits of the de- 
parted, there is an appropriate residence, no matter where, for every 
soul of man, between the hour of his dissolution, and the day of 
judgment; that we shall not then become to " dumb forgetfulness a 
prey;" but rather experience in our nobler nature still greater 
powers of intellection than we now enjoy. I acknowledge however, 
that this is far from being a source of consolation to those, who are 
living without God in the world, and who have every reason to 
prefer the slumber of ages to an immediate companionship with the 
rich man in the intervening state of partial torment. But what 
righteous man is there, believing in a general resurrection and a 
general judgment; believing that body and soul must be reunited, 
before an entrance can be ministered unto him abundantly into the 
everlasting presence of his heavenly Father; what righteous man 
is there, who under these circumstances will not rejoice in the 
scriptural assurance of a place, adapted to the separate existence of 
his soul, and replete with enjoyments of no ordinary description? 

Remember, that he will there be associated with the pious friends 
and relatives, whom he tenderly loved in this vale of tears. He 
will there commence, his communion and fellowship with the saints 
/ 



214 



of every age, with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, with the ble.-> 
sed company of the Apostles, and the noble army of martyrs. He 
will there anticipate with them the full fruition of bliss, which shall 
succeed the second coming of our Lord, w^ith all his holy angels 
with him, to judge the world in righteousness. And is not this 
far better, than a state of dreamless repose and unconscious obli- 
vion? Is it not far better, to live in paradise surrounded with con- 
genial spirits, than to endure, for an indefinite period, a total sus- 
pension of all the active powers of the mind, and all the philan- 
thropick affections of the heart? 

Surely, Brethren, it was with the design of encouraging us to 
run with patience the race set before us, that our Saviour said, 
"Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the 
soul." And yet, forasmuch as the rewards of heaven can only be 
obtained after the resurrection of those, who die in the Lord, if there 
be no intermediate mansion of departed and rejoicing spirits, the 
soul is as effectually destroyed by death as the body, and will only 
revive with it, only live, when it shall forever relinquish the bond- 
age of the grave. The whole of which is manifestly opposed to 
the consolation offered by Him, who knew all things, to his perse- 
cuted followers; and is moreover directly subversive of the expec- 
tations entertained by the holy Apostle, when he looked forward 
with rapture to the day of his death; when he ardently longed to 
depart and be with Christ, to be absent from the body and present 
with the Lord. Well then may the believer in these remoter ages 
rely upon a like glorious change ; well may he refuse to despond 
under the dismal apprehension, that his soul shall sleep with the 
body the oblivious sleep of death, however temporary. It is rather 
released from this state of sin and sorrow, for other and nobler pur- 
poses. It is released from its mortal companion, in order to be 
carried by angels into Abraham^ bosom, where it will exist in the 
■transporting hope of future glory, and under the all pervading 
consciousness, that " God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
living." 

There is besides, another aspect, in which the subject presents 
itself in a most persuasive and practical manner. For the moment 
we accede to the continued existence of departed spirits, we ne- 
cessarily invest them with all the mental powers, which they ex- 
hibited in the course of their earthly probation. They can reason. 



2lo 



and reflect. They can call up to remembrance past events, and 
communicate their thoughts each to the other, with perhaps more 
than their wonted facility while here below. And what must be 
the consequence ? Every thing that transpires on earth is known 
to them; not by immediate inspection,- not that I confide in the 
rhetorical flourish, through which the souls of the dead are repre- 
sented to be continually hovering over the places which once knew 
them. But death is ever removing his victims here and there from 
this transient life. Spirit after spirit is perpetually hastening to 
the world of spirits, and when arrived within its confines, pos- 
sessed of memory, and reason, and the capacity of imparting 
knowledge ; Is it credible, that they should remain perversely silent 
and incommunicative of the transactions of this world? As well 
might we deny, that the human soul of Christ preached to the 
spirits in prison ; as well contend, that the whole parable is spuri- 
ous, which minutely details the conversation occurring between 
the rich man, and the father of the faithful. Since both are in strict 
accordance with the principle I have suggested, and both are evi- 
dently supposititious, unless spirit can communicate to spirit every 
particle of intelligence it has previously acquired. On the con- 
trary by admitting their genuineness, we are forced to concede, that 
as Christ announced his triumphs upon the cross to the inmates of 
paradise, and as the rich man is represented, relating to Abraham 
the precise situation of his five brethren remaining within the pre- 
cincts of time ; so every recently departed soul is empowered to 
impart to the souls, with whom it is destined to associate, an accu- 
rate account of whatever passed within its personal cognizance in 
the land of the dying. 

How easy then to develop the practical benefits which may re- 
sult from this imposing and scriptural view of the subject. Too 
many of our race; too many perchance of this very audience, are 
far more disposed to fear man than the Maker of man. They can 
readily indulge the corrupt propensities of our nature, notwithstand 
ing the Omniscient eye is continually upon them, spying out all 
iheir ways, and still entirely refrain in the presence of friends and 
relatives, whose religious feelings they respect, and whose good 
opinions they are anxious to retain. 

But in process of time, those friends, those relatives, whose piety 
operated as a salutary restraint upon their conduct in life, are sum- 



216 



moned to that bourn from which no traveller returns, and then the' 
impatient sinner too often rushes with avidity into the broad road, 
which leadeth to destruction. The fear of God, and the certainty 
of his overruling providence are scarcely ever permitted to cross 
his morbid mind, and as for man, unless possessed of some colour 
of right in virtue of the ties of affinity, he alike braves his censure, 
and disdains his applause. 

But only allow the doctrine, which I am anxious to inculcate, 
only allow this to become the settled persuasion of his mind, and 
what inestimable benefits might not directly follow in its train 
Imagine that he has been deprived of an affectionate and pious 
parent. Of one, whom he both loved and feared, and whose loss 
he could not but sincerely lament. Instead of absolutely burying 
all parental authority in the dust before him, this* doctrine awakens 
new and peradventure more lively impressions, than he ever before 
experienced. He represents to himself his beloved relative in the 
preparatory abode of blessedness, and not only so, not only enjoy- 
ing its incipient state of triumph and glory; but as regularly ap- 
prized, by those of his acquaintance, who successively yield to the 
summons of death, of the identical manner in which he employs 
the few moments allotted him to prepare for eternity. 

If therefore he sincerely venerates the memory of the pious dead , 
will he not exult in pursuing a course of conduct, which being com- 
municated, would cause the living spirit to rejoice, as the angels 
are said to rejoice over one sinner that repenteth ? Or, if he rever- 
enced his parent with a truly filial fear, while a resident in time, 
would he not earnestly endeavour to avoid all such offences, ae 
would grieve his sainted spirit, as the spirit of God is described to 
be grieved, in witnessing the contradiction of sinners? I appeal, 
Brethren, to your individual consciences, and am bold to assert 
that under the circumstances, which have been recited, that man 
would be vile amongst the vile, who could continue utterly regard- 
less of the light in which his actions would be viewed in paradise, 
by the once dearest object of his affections: The once fond, in- 
dulgent parent, who longs even in that blissful region to hear of 
those personal attainments in religion, which shall at length pro- 
duce a happy reunion, where there are neither tears to shed, nor 
parting benedictions to pronounce^ 



21? 

There is also another feature in this survey, which nothing but 
the sense of duty could ever induce me to bring up to your reflec- 
tions. We have most of us experienced the melancholy bereave- 
ment of the friends and relatives we loved, and fondly do we cher- 
ish the hope that they are now rejoicing in the intermediate state 
of happiness. It is possible however, that we may hereafter 
find ourselves mistaken. I may be mistaken with regard to one, 
who was most dear to my heart, and so may either of your number 
in relation to your equally beloved kindred. They may be on the 
fatal side of the impassable gulf, and yet being fully certified of our 
present character in the sight of heaven, through the same medium 
to which I have called your attention: What are their feelings 
towards us? What the line of conduct, they would have us pursue? 

Believe me, Brethren, they would only hear of our acceptance 
of the overtures of the gospel. They would only hear, that we had 
become the humble followers of the cross of Christ. Believe me, 
and not me alone, since the scriptures are as full and convincing 
upon the matter, as it is possible to conceive of. I once more al- 
lude to the case of the rich man, and am indifferent whether you 
consider the narrative an allegory or not; inasmuch as it cannot be 
less than a representation of what does take place, and therefore it 
settles in either event the only principle, that is worth debating. 

Listen then to the words, which he is described as uttering, being 
in torment. They are addressed to Abraham, and are couched in 
the once despised language of prayer; " I pray thee therefore, father, 
that thou wouldest send him" that is Lazarus, " to my father's house : 
For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they 
also come into this place of torment." Memory then was his; af- 
fection, his; the power to communicate, his; and when I have re- 
marked to you., that he seems to have utterly renounced the now- 
proverbial fact, that misery loves company; the lucid and momen- 
tous character of the incidents unfolded renders all other comment 
superfluous. They completely establish the knowledge, which the 
spirits of the dead have of the affairs of the living. They plainly 
evince, that however happy our own departed and beloved relatives 
may be in the society of Abraham, the wretched Dives is not the 
only being, who would gladly sent a messenger to prevail with im- 
penitent sinner? to flee from the wrath to come. But alas, "If they 

2E 



218 



hear not Moses and the prophets," Christ and the Apostles, " neither 
will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead 

Such therefore, Brethren, is the practical use, to which I would 
subject the principal argument of this discourse, Some of us may 
have little regard for the exalted Being, most worthy of continual 
love, and reverence, and fear; little regard, for the very reason, that 
he never was, and never can be corporeally present to our senses. 
But we have stood in awe of those, whose spirits are now, as we 
trust, rejoicing in hope, or dreadful to think, trembling in agony ; 
and let us govern our future lives by the conviction, tbat they are 
perfectly acquainted with the respective parts we are acting in this 
fleeting show, and, whatever may have been their previous solici- 
tudes, that they are now universally desirous of learning our actual 
transition from the death of sin to the life of righteousness.. Let 
us govern ourselves by this conviction, for it may bring us to our 
senses in relation to the great Jehovah himself. It may teach us 
to fear Him, who can destroy and make alive. And then the great 
object of our existence will be accomplished. We shall be renew- 
ed in the spirit of our minds, and although our bodies must neces- 
sarily see corruption, our better souls will go where Christ has gone 
before us, 

In drawing to a conclusion, I must not however fail to remind 
you ? that the prevailing errour, of departed souls being forthwith 
consigned to an ultimate heaven or hell, is not only at variance 
with those scriptures, which inculcate the existence of an inter- 
mediate state; but with many others, utterly incapable of being 
tortured into harmony with it. If for example, there were airy- 
spirits of just men already entered into their everlasting rest, we 
might be certain of the present heavenly felicity of the man after 
God's own heart. But what says the Apostle, in relation to hie 
bod v r about which there is no controversy ? "'Men and Brethren, 
let me freely speak to you of the patriarch David, that he is both 
dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day/' 
What in relation to his soul? "David is not ascended into the 
heavens : but he saith himself, The Lord saith unto my Lord, Sit 
thou on my right hand, until I make' thy foes thy footstool/' 

If it were not a mere illusion; it would also seem that the spirits 
of the righteous dead must enjoy the felicity of beholding the glori 
fied body of their ascended Redeemer face to face. But the Apos^ 



219 



jie evidently refers this gratifying circumstance to his second com- 
ing, addressing the faithful in this manner, " When Christ, who 
is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in 
glory." He does not intimate that they would be with him before 
nor, when the holy angels are introduced as attending him on the 
day, that in his glorious majesty he shall come to judge the quick 
and the dead, does it appear that the souls of the saints are to bear 
them company in their flight from the heavenly world. On the 
contrary, every thing revealed, concerning the resurrection of the 
dead and the great and terrible day of judgment, clearly indicates 
that these events must precede the recognition of Christ by believ- 
ers, and the bestowment of his rewards upon them. These are his 
own words foretelling this consequence of the coming of the Son of 
Man, " Then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together 
his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to 
the uttermost part of heaven." And again, P Thou shalt be recom- 
pensed at the resurrection of the just." 

Whereas the errour I am combating involves the monstrous ab= 
surdity of a previous entrance into heaven, and a previous enjoy- 
ment of its rewards. It even supposes the souls of the righteous to 
come out from its blissful courts, and of course those of the unright= 
eous from their dreadful abyss, in order to be reunited to their res- 
pective bodies, and listen to sentences already executed ; " Then 
shall the King say unto them on his right hand, come, ye blessed of 
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founda- 
tion the world." " Then shall he say also unto them on the left 
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for 
the devil and his angels." But the doctrine of an intermediate state 
harmonizes with all these events, it corresponds with the idea of a 
general judgment, and agrees with the memorable declaration of 
Paul to the Thessalonians ; " For this we say unto you by the word 
of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of 
the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord 
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice 
of an archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ 
shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be 
caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in th$ 
air- and so shall we ever be with the Lord " 



220 



Nor is it justly liable to any objection. When for instance, the ' 
same Apostle expresses himself as "willing rather to be absent 
from the body, and to be present with the Lord,'"' it does not neces- 
sarily imply a personal interview immediately succeeding his death. 
For if while Christ's disciples continue in this sinful state, he could 
promise and say, " Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the world;" much more will he be spiritually, though not corporeal- 
ly, present with them in the blessed mansions of paradise. Those 
mansions, where the soul of Lazarus is represented to have been 
carried by the angels, and where Abraham is described as the prin- 
cipal personage, which could not have been true, had it been de- 
signed to convey the idea of heaven; the heaven, where Christ was, 
and to whom, in this case, the rich man would have addressed him- 
self rather than to a created intelligence. But according to the 
true construction, with great propriety is he spoken of, as pleading 
with the father of the faithful, and from him receiving the answers, 
which so thoroughly baffled all his hopes, whether relating to him- 
self, or to the- kindred he had left behind. 

Let it also be remembered, that our views upon this subject ma- 
terially vary from the Roman catholick notion of a purgatory. For 
the papists arrange departed souls into three distinct classes: One 
of which, being completely cleansed from all the defilements con- 
tracted in this life, ascend immediately to heaven : Another, dy- 
ing impenitent and guilty of mortal sins, are as quickly cast into 
hell : While the third, all of whom are eventually to be received up 
into glory, first require to be purified from some venial sins, not suf- 
ficiently repented of here below; and therefore the purgatory to 
which they are doomed for an indefinite period; therefore the masses 
catholicks repeat for the repose of the dead, and their speed}- en- 
largement, from a punitory prison, to the house not made with hands, 
which is eternal in the heavens. All this however, we are com- 
pelled to reject as a mere fiction, unfounded in the scriptures, and 
diametrically opposed to the doctrine, which they deliver, describing 
this life as the only state of probation; requiring of every man to 
be here cleansed from all unrighteousness, and to become pure as 
God is pure, holy as God is holy; and determining the future irre- 
versible doom of all, in this emphatick language, " He that is unjust, 
let him be unjust still : and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still t 
and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still : and he that is 
holy, let him be holy still.'? 



221 



Finally, Brethren, I have to suggest, that the doctrine of an inter- 
mediate state should not be discarded on the gound of novelty, as it 
is peculiar to no age or country, nor to any protestant denomina-> 
tion. It is rather maintained by all the great divines of our Church, 
from the time of Cranmer, to that of Horsley, and notwithstanding 
the popular opinion upon which I have animadverted, our learned 
dissenting brethren have not been averse from defending its scrip- 
tural authority, as may be seen in the writings of Doddridge, Watts, 
Campbell, and M'Knight of the presbyterian Church, and Wesley, 
and Adam Clarke of the methodist, with many others. There are 
indeed few truths contained in the sacred volume susceptible of 
clearer demonstration. Let us therefore unitedly bless the Lord 
our God, for the paradise he has been pleased to prepare for the dis- 
imbodied souls of the righteous; and under the soothing conviction, 
that they are not to be consigned to a state of unconscious oblivion, 
in the interval between death and the resurrection, let us devoutly 
adopt the language of the sweet singer of Israel, and say, " Many, 
O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which" thou hast done, and 
thy thoughts which are to us-ward ; they cannot be reckoned up in 
order unto thee: if I could declare and speak of them, they are 
more than cap be numbered. *' Ambits 



SERMON XVIII. 

isaiah lxii, I. 

For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem^ salee 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness 
arid the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

IN strict conformity with the vow or declaration recorded in 
the text, I have endeavoured, Brethren, to present you with a com- 
pendious view of the principal features of our venerable Church. 
Having made the vow my own, you must judge of the facts and ar- 
guments, which it ha^ elicited, whether they have been true or 



222 



false, strong or weak ; whether I have or have not succeeded in. 
giving a satisfactory account of our government and ministry, our 
institutions and worship, our leading doctrines and articles of relk 
gion. Forbearance has been long exercised. Controversy of every 
description has been studiously avoided, and nothing but the most 
solemn sense of duty could have induced me to deviate from a 
course persisted in for years, and having for its foundation a sincere 
desire to " live peaceably with all men." 

But while that desire is not in the slightest degree impaired; 
while fully sensible that the servant of Jesus must not strive, I 
have yet dared to appear in defence of the truth; I have yet 
dared, for Zion and Jerusalem's sake, to expose myself to the 
animadversions I would fain deprecate. Not therefore in the spirit 
of chivalry; not that I would gladly break a lance with any of our 
oppose rs in some hard fought field of theology. For if the Apostle 
has exhorted all Christians in these terms, ?« Leaving the principles 
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying 
again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith 
toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, 
and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment you may 
easily conceive, that the Christian minister must feel no inconsid- 
erable share of regret at the necessity, which is frequently imposed 
upon him, of inculcating again and again the true scriptural views 
of these great and important topicks: Regret owing to the exis- 
tence of many gross and dangerous errours, and because of the 
collisions to which it unavoidably subjects him. 

For even upon these elementary principles, the clergy of the 
Church will find some one denomination or other to differ, and none, 
that entirely concur with her in sentiment. Many persons there 
are to assert the intrinsick merit of good works. The anabaptist 
contests the validity of infant baptism, and is equally adverse to 
sprinkling or affusion. The presbyterian, congregational, and most, 
if not all other protestant sects, are opposed to the laying on of 
hands in confirmation. Upon the subject of the resurrection of the 
dead, we have not only to combat the infidel, but unhappily nominal 
Christians of every Church, who, if they do not absolutely disavow 
its certainty, are nevertheless extremely indifferent to its ulteriour 
consequences. And then in relation to an eternal judgment, it is 
well known that the universalist professes an ardent attachment to 



223 



the theory of final felicity ; to the eventual reception of the vilest 
sinner into mansions of imperishable glory. 

It is therefore with unfeigned sorrow, that we are often forced to 
maintain M the first principles of the oracles of God," rather than 
continually beseech you to "go on unto perfection," as if thorough- 
ly persuaded, that every professed believer was " endeavouring to 
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," by acknowledg- 
ing, " There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in 
one hope of your calling j one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God 
and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." 
On the contrary, new sources of variance are perpetually unfolding 
themselves, When we administer the symbolized body and blood 
of Christ, we come in contact with the quaker, who rejects the visi^ 
ble celebration of this sacrament. When we invoke the influences 
of the Holy Spirit, and rely upon one Lord and one mediator be- 
tween God and man ; we are called in question by the unitarian, 
denying to the former all personality, and to the latter his eternal 
Sonship and Divinity, 

And still, Brethren, surrounded as we are on every side, by these 
elements of hostility, there is nevertheless one consoling circum- 
stance through which the picture I have drawn is in a great measure 
deprived of its gloomy and revolting features, so far at least as the 
personal feelings of Churchmen are concerned. Strange and para- 
doxical then, as it may appear to persons unaccustomed to an accu- 
rate analysis of systems, it is notwithstanding strictly true, that 
upon almost every principle cited from the Apostle, and every doc- 
trine comprised in our articles, we have the satisfaction of knowing, 
that a vast majority of the protestant world clearly coincide in sen- 
timent with us. The reason is this. The different denominations 
canxot agree wherein the Church they heve abandoned is wrong; 
but dividing in their opinions, some are found to assail her on one 
quarter, and some on another. The consequence is, that she proves 
herself invulnerable upon all points, so far as numbers are permitted 
to test the credibility cf her doctrines. 

And certainly in the present case, numbers derive more than an 
ordinary weight of authority, from the consideration of their shift- 
ing so perpetually, that in the issue, we gain the approbation of all 
parties to some one or other of the prominent articles of our faith. 
The more orthodox concurring with us in the weightier, and the 



224 



residue only increasing the ratio of their respective distances^ in , 
proportion to the sum total of their multiplied errours and divisions, 
until at length they dwindle down, and imperceptibly blend with 
the friends and retainers of infidelity. 

For do we require the co-operation of others, in support of an 
holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three persons and one God ? 
We obtain the suffrages of the great body of that vast variety of 
small and discordant sects, which have sprung up, and gradually 
estranged themselves from the first presbyterian schism. Do we 
need assistance in defence of sprinkling and infant baptism? Our 
auxiliaries are equally numerous, and unite their voices in oppo- 
sition to a few baptists. Do we need additional strength in favour 
of the two sacraments of the gospel ? The baptist himself becomes 
our advocate, and fewer still are found to confide in the disconnect- 
ed inward excitements and spiritual repasts of the quaker. Do we 
insist upon the eternity of future punishments ? The quaker, in his 
turn, will not refuse us the authority of his creed, in exposing the 
dreamy confidence of the universalist. Do we uphold the doctrine 
of a vicarious sacrifice and atonement for sin ? We perceive the 
universalist, not merely joining our ranks; but so fondly anxious 
for the salvation of good and bad, penitent and impenitent, as to 
exalt the divine oblation and propitiation of Christ, to an height, 
at yet greater variance with the low estimation, in which he is held 
by the unitarian. Do we adhere to the authenticity and inspiration 
of the generally received canon of scripture? Unitarians for the 
most part combine in aiding us to drive the infidel from his puny 
shifts and miserable evasions. Do we " believe in God the Father 
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible 
and invisible?" Even the wretched infidel is here ready to tender 
us his ungracious hand, and assist in demolishing the baseless 
t'abrick of atheism, if atheism there be. 

How evident then, when we examine the Church on the one 
hand, and the seceders in a body on the other; how evident, that 
these last are so exceedingly rent and divided in their opposition, 
that the aggregate of their testimony upon every controverted doc- 
trine, not peculiar to episcopalians, is decidedly in favour of the 
faith we have so long and so religiously maintained. And what are 
the fair inferences to be gained from this brief review? Before 
they can justly charge us with errours, they should first cultivate 



■225 



harmony in their own ranks; they should first agree as to the 
nature of those errours, and cease to vibrate among themselves, 
one moment for us, and another against us, as our several princi- 
ples and institutions become the successive objects of inquiry. 
Before they can justify their rejection of a valid episcopacy, and 
precomposed forms of prayer; they should submit some system 
better adapted to preserve Christians from the endless divisions and 
heresies, to which their rejection jhas given birth. Before they 
can call upon us to renounce these two Apostolick institutions, still 
retained by nineteen twentieths of the Christian world ; they should 
present us with unquestionable evidence, that their own renuncia- 
tion has been greatly countenanced and blessed by our Father in 
heaven. 

Such evidence can never be gathered from the sacred volume. 
Their disjointed opposition, and the invisible Church for which 
they contend, as I have already reminded you, are far too obnoxious 
to this argument of our blessed Lord, "Every kingdom divided 
against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house 
divided against itsekf shall not stand." Nor can it be obtained 
from the records of ecclesiastical history. The posterity of all 
those, who at the period of the continental reformation failed to 
reform in the visible Church; who discarded the wheat with the 
tares, episcopacy and forms of prayer with the inventions of men, 
have almost invariably declined from the true faith of Christ; and 
every subsequent schism has either followed the example, or is at 
this moment furnishing strong indications of being finally over- 
whelmed in the same heretical vortex. 

As the subject possesses a melancholy interest, and is worthy of 
our most serious consideration, I shall proceed to as brief an ex- 
amination as is practicable. You must be sensible, that our Chris- 
tian brethren are constantly adverting to their religious prosperity., 
as infallible proof of the divine blessing being poured out upon 
their various Churches. The argument is plausible, and if limited 
to what may be discerned at a given place and a given period, it 
would probably prove unanswerable. But I would take a^more 
enlarged view. I would not deny, but that many persons have 
been individually blessed in a state of schism continued in through 
ignorance. Our Saviour accounts for it, where he says, "he that 
is not against us is for us." Paul also observed, "Some indeed 

2F 



226 



preach Christ even of envy and stripe, and some also of gooa 
will." He could not therefore have refrained from condemning the 
conduct of the former, and yet his conclusion is, " Notwithstanding ? 
every way, whether in pretence^ or in truth; Christ is preached; 
and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice." If envious and 
contentious preachers then were instrumental in doing some good 
in the days of Paul, we need not be surprised at the successful 
preaching of some modern schismaticks ; we need not wonder, but 
have reason, after the manner of Paul, to rejoice in the certainty ? 
that there are numbers of pious believers attending upon their 
ministry, who upon full conviction of being separated from Christ's 
mysticlaj. body, would gladly repair to it, and renounce all their 
prior prepossessions. Christians like these would therefore give 
to any socie^, call it by what name you please, a religious charac- 
ter, and so long as they survived, or their successors retained their 
principles, the Almighty would not fail to bless their personal ef- 
forts to run in the way of his commandments. Little however does 
this avail to convince me, that he has ever bestowed his blessing 
upon the cause of schism, as distinct from the individuals, who 
have undesignedly fallen into its embraces, It would be contrary 
to his word declaring, " that there should be no schism in the body/' 
It would convert him into the God of disorder instead of order, and 
including all the sectaries^ of strife and hatred, of errour and every 
evil work, instead of peace and love, of truth and holiness. 

I shall therefore endeavour to persuade you ? that this apparent 
religious prosperity on the part of some of our seceding Churches 
is not to be regarded in the light of a permanent blessing from 
heaven. For this purpose, let us recur to the past, and connect it 
with the present^ premising that I am not arguing with protestants 
generally, but with those of them, who are disposed to entertain 
the same sentiments with us upon the prominent doctrines of the? 
cross. Where then I ask was episcopacy first abandoned ? You 
have heard that it was in Germany and Switzerland, and will re~ 
member, that the deviation was justified by the leading reformers 
or. the sole ground of necessity. And what have been the effects? 
What great and glorious advantages have resulted to the present 
inhabitants of those countries, so distinguished in the annals of 
the protectant faith? 



227 

I am content, Brethren, to submit their actual condition to the 
most orthodox of our opposers, and when it is known, you must be 
satisfied, that they would fain destroy this page in the history of 
their Church. The anti-catholick part of Germany is at this mo- 
ment completely subdued to the unitarian faith. There it is, that 
the presbyterian societies have yielded jto what their brethren in 
this country would denounce as a most detestable heresy. There 
it is, that the most eminent divines of that school have had their 
origin; and from thence it is, that their works have been dispersed 
throughout the protestant world, enjoying the highest reputation 
with all, for their critical acumen, and with many, for their liberal 
theology. It reminds me of the declaration of Melancthon, before 
quoted, " I would to God it lay in me to restore the government of 
bishops. For I see what manner of Church we shall have, the ec- 
clesiastical polity being dissolved." He anticipated tyranny, but 
it has eventuated in what he would have considered infinitely worse 
than tyranny. 

And do not the same principles triumph* in Switzerland? Where 
are the presbyterian Churches founded by Calvin at Geneva? Near- 
ly all with their branches have become unitarian. Scarcely one of 
them has escaped the infection. Long ago Rousseau triumphantly 
remarked, " The pastors of Geneva are asked if Jesus Christ is 
God: they dare not answer. They are asked what mysteries they 
admit: They dare not answer. A philosopher casts upon them 
a haughty glance; he sees through them; he discovers them to be 
Arians, Socinians; he proclaims it, and thinks that he does them 
honour. Immediately alarmed, terrified, they assemble, they con- 
sult, they are agitated; they know not what saint to call upon; and 
after manifold consultations, deliberations, conferences, the whole 
terminates in a nonplus, in which is neither said, yes, nor no." 

But Rousseau, like Voltaire who bore similar testimony, was an 
arch-infidel, whose malignant exultation requires to be corrobora- 
ted by unexceptionable evidence; and unhappily we have it in the 
person of Dr. Raffles, a very distinguished dissenting clergyman 
of England, who visited Geneva in the year eighteen hundred and 
seventeen. Speaking of this city, he says, " The shortness of Our 
stay did not allow us, indeed, to see any of its society; and the ii£ 
formation I had previously obtained of the state of religion was 
not such as to excite in my mind very exalted expectations of plea* 



228 



sure from that source. Few of the doctrines, and little of the spirits 
which once rendered it the glory of the protectant world now re= 
main: and that truth, which was asserted and maintained by Cal- 
vin, a name to which the city of Geneva is more indebted for its 
celebrity than to the grandeur of its scenery, the beauties of its 
lake, or the stem character of its ancient independence, has scarce- 
ly an asylum within its walls. The pastors of its Churches are 
almost to a man, Arians, or Socinians. A few perhaps, may 
cherish the genuine principles of the reformation and feel their 
Influence. I know, indeed, that this is the case, but they bear no 
proportion to the majority, who are sunk in infidelity and skepti- 
cism, and can do but little towards the diffusion of that divine light, 
and the spread of that glorious gospel, by the resuscitating energy 
of which the Church of Geneva may again awake from the philo- 
gophick dreams of infidelity, and emulate the zeal,, the piety, and 
the simplicity of former times." 

Out of the mouth of an adversary, we are therefore enabled to 
prove the pernicious tendency of the presbyterian system. It has 
failed, eminently failed in the very place it was first brought into 
existence. There indeed, as I have learnt from an eyewitness, 
the sabbath has become in the popular sense a holiday, being 
principally devoted to recreation and pleasure, to the games 
and sports of the season. And does this look, as if Gcd had blessed 
the innovations of schism? Can protestants embracing similar 
views of the divine character of their Saviour, and of the solemni- 
ties to be observed upon the sacred day, arrive at this conclusion? 
It is impossible. We may and we ought to cherish kind and be- 
nevolent feelings towards all the members of the human family; 
but not to the extent of countenancing the errours of their faith, or 
the obliquities of their practice. 

Passing from the continent to England, the scene is r not materi- 
ally changed. The persecution of Mary drove many of the re- 
formers abroad, and when they returned on the accession of Eliza- 
beth, some of them began to propagate the Geneva system of doc- 
trine and government. Zealous and ardent in the cause, they at 
length obtained the ascendency. Before the death of the first 
Charles, presbyterianism had supplanted the established Church, 
and a fair experiment was made of its capacity to promote the cause 
of the Redeemer. 



229 



i will give you the result in the language of Edwards, one of its 
varmest advocates, and to his death far from being instructed by 
the evils, it had been instrumental in producing; evils that in his 
address to the existing rulers, he thus freely condemns ; " You have 
done worthily against papists, prelates, and scandalous ministers, 
in casting down images, altars, crucifixes, throwing out ceremonies, 
&c. but what have you done against heresy, schism, disorder, 
against seekers, anabaptists, antinomians, brownists, libertines, and 
other sects? You have made a reformation, but with the reforma- 
tion have we not worse things come upon us than we had before, 
as denying the scriptures, pleading for toleration of all religions 
and worships; yea, for blasphemy, and denying there is a God? 
You have put down the Common Prayer, and there are many 
among us that are for putting down the scriptures. You have broken 
the, images of the Trinity, and we have those who oppose the 
Trinity. You have cast out bishops and their officers, and we have 
many that cast down to the ground all ministers. You have cast 
out ceremonies in the sacrament, as the cross, kneeling at the Lord's 
supper, and many cast out the sacraments themselves. You have 
put down saints' days, and many make nothing of the Lord's day. 
You have taken away the superfluous maintenance of bishops and 
deans, and we have many that cry down the necessary maintenance 
of ministers. In the bishops 1 days we had singing of psalms taken 
away in some places, conceived prayer, preaching, and in their 
room anthems, stinted forms and reading brought in, and now sing- 
ing of psalms is spoken against, publick prayer questioned, and all 
ministerial preaching denied. In the bishops' time popish innova- 
tions were introduced, as bowing at altars, dec. and now we have 
anointing the sick with oil ; then we had bishoping of children, now 
we have bishoping of men and women, by laying on of hands. In 
the bishops' days we had the fourth commandment taken away, and 
now all ten are taken away by the antinomians. The worst of 
the prelates held many sound doctrines, and had many commenda- 
ble practices, but many of our sectaries deny all principles of re- 
ligion, are enemies to all holy duties, order, learning, overthrow- 
ing all." 

Yes, Brethren, you are here presented with the thoughts of a 
celebrated presbyterian divine, describing circumstances, which 
transpired under his own observation. And does this look as if 



230 



God had blessed the introduction of schism in England? To me it 
wears an entirely different aspect. To me the rapid organization 
at that time of about sixty different sects, many of them the most 
loose in principle and in conduct, clearly indicates, that when its 
floodgates are once opened, there is not wanting all manner of 
heresy to threaten the destruction of every thing sacred and every 
thing divine. Even at this day, where is it that unitarianism flour- 
ishes in the land of our fathers? I answer, where the liturgy is 
discarded and ministerial parity is maintained. Buchanan, a man 
not to be suspected, as you may readily suppose, of speaking with- 
out authority; Buchanan tells us that "the presbyterians in the 
west of England, and some other sects," " are said to have become 
Arians and Soeinians to a man." 

And need I inform you, that in our own country, they have long 
since made their appearance, and broached their doctrines among 
the descendants of the puritans; that they have appropriated to 
themselves the first of our literary institutions; and that they are 
every day becoming more and more popular with those that ex-* 
claim against our Church, her ministry and her worship? Mistake 
not however the nature of this argument. I do not mean to abuse 
unitarians. For many of them, I entertain a very sincere and cor- 
dial esteem, and though I cannot concur in their opinions, thinking 
them extremely dangerous and fatal ; yet are they not amenable to 
me, yet must I leave them to be judged of Him, who judgeth 
righteous judgment. But when I am told, that the seceding Church- 
es are eminently blessed of God, 1 adduce these facts, and appeal 
to the orthodox of every denomination fairly and dispassionately 
to weigh them, having their understandings enlightened, and their 
Consciences probed. 

And are they not facts? Is it not true, that wherever the presby- 
terian polity has been long introduced, it has invariably proved the 
entering wedge to innumerable divisions and heresies; to those 
mentioned by Edwards; to those which characterize our own age, 
and even our own neighbourhood? Upon this subject, are we not 
merely to examine the present state of the Church technically call- 
ed presbyterian, but all those that have gone astray under the auspi- 
ces of her ministerial parity and extemporaneous worship ; and that, 
still adhering to these modern inventions, have the same valid title 
•o the epithet presbyterian? Undoubtedly. Brethren, such is ou? 



231 



proper course, and when pursued, it reveals all these, as so many' 
facts impossible to be successfully denied or repelled. Far be it 
then from our Church to be blessed in this manner. We desire not to 
thank the Lord Most High, for any such changes in the system of truth 
and order, to which we are attached. In mercy he has hitherto 
witheld them, and in mercy may he continue to withold. 

There is not a single protestant Episcopal Church upon the face 
of the earth, where heretical doctrines are either introduced into its 
creed, or permitted to be inculcated from its pulpits; and the pecu- 
liar character of our institutions is such as to afford the surest guar- 
antee, that they never will. Our bishops constitute the first barrier 
against them. Comparatively few in number, and consecrated at 
an age, when their judgments are mature, and their principles are 
known to be firmly established, they are not likely to be tossed to 
and fro by every wind of doctrine ; they are not likely to experience 
a material change in sentiment ; and contrary to all modern exam-* 
pie, one or more of them must change, before our episcopacy can be 
conveyed to the promoters of any heresy. 

Our invaluable liturgy is another and invincible barrier against 
the introduction of the more dangerous errours. For what would a 
congregation think of that minister, who after addressing the throne 
of grace in the words, " O God the Son, Redeemer of the world 
• £ O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, three persons and one God ; r? 
and repeating the prayer to be delivered from God's " wrath and ev- 
erlasting damnation ;"' What would they think of him, if, after this, 
he were to deliver a discourse controverting these solemn truths, 
and attributing their present existence to the weakness and super- 
stition of a former age? You must admit that no congregation could 
possibly endure him ; they could not countenance such flagrant in- 
consistency. And hence among other things the value of our liturgy ; 
hence the seal of silence, it imposes upon lips, that might otherwise 
prove reprobate concerning the faith. Our inferiour clergy, as well 
as others, may be hypocrites and dissemblers with God ; but so long 
as they continue to minister at our altars, they cannot publickly de- 
cry the doctrines recognised in our forms of prayer. They must first 
leave us, and if they leave, not having episcopal authority, they 
cannot build up a heterodox episcopal Church. 

Not so however with our presbyterian clergy of any denomina- 
tion. Their extemporary prayers may be accommodated to any 



232 



Opinions, and should those opinions cause the dissolution of- 
their connexion with a particular sect, they can still propagate them 
in another, with the same supposed right to ordain successors in the 
ministry, that they enjoyed before. A circumstance, which I con- 
sider as a very material defect in their system, when compared 
with our own* With us, the liturgy alone is an admirable preserva 
t»ye against the inroads of schism. They have none, and to adopt 
the exclamation of the celebrated missionary to the Indies, " Wo 
to the declining Church which hath no gospel liturgy !" With us, the 
ordination of a bishop is essential. With them, there is the like 
authority vested in all their ministers, and this has been, and is, the 
fruitful source from which all the Churches corrupt in doctrine have 
obtained their pastors. This is the reason, that while they have been 
uniformly restrained to presbyters in rank 5 they have not had it in 
their power to boast of a single bishop having united himself to 
either of their communions. The inference is obvious. So far as 
heretical opinions have found their way into the reformed Church- 
es, we have had no agency in their introduction. The fault lies at 
another door. Not one of them is episcopal. They are all pres 
byterian in their external features. They have no other than a 
presbyterian ministry. They are indeed as universally opposed to 
bishops, as their more orthodox brethren, and freely unite with them 
in denouncing the office, as one of the relicks of Roman usurpation. 
And most willing are we to bear the reproach ; most clearly do we 
discern in our freedom from all the blameworthiness connected 
with the origin and continued existence of their errours, that God has 
deigned to bless his true Apostolick Church with all spiritual bless.* 
ings in Christ Jesus. 

I know not, Brethren, what value you may attach to these con- 
siderations, but with me they possess an intrinsick weight and im- 
portance, which I could wish to have presented in a yet stronger 
light. Not that I would detract from the personal piety of others, 
not that 1 would charge upon the present members of a particular 
Church all the evils, to which your attention has been directed 
It would be equally absurd and unjust. It would betray a spirit 
equally illiberal and malicious. And yet, to the system embraced 
by their spiritual forefathers, I am forced to attribute the vast va- 
riety of sects, with their attendant errours, which now deform the 
face of Christendom, and mar the otherwise transcendent beauty 
and simplicity of the protestant faith . 



233 



If wrong, I am deceived by a long series of events, that it is im= 
possible for me to interpret in a different manner. If right, then it 
is but too certain, that our Christian friends are far from having 
been blessed to the extent they imagine, in the persevering support 
of their ecclesiastical polity. They may examine their own hearts, 
and as true believers in Christ desirous of promoting his glory, and 
their own salvation, they may enjoy a large amount of real felicity. 
They may contemplate the local communion to which they belong, 
and perceiving it to abound with congenial spirits, they may from 
this circumstance derive an additional fund of gratification. But 
let them look abroad where their beloved Church once flourished, 
alike fair and beauteous to the eye, and " how is the gold become 
dim! how is the most fine gold changed!" Let them anticipate the 
coming of a few more years, and the same defective system may 
produce even here the same disastrous results. Let them now cast 
their eyes around, and although they may have reason to be thank- 
ful for their individual attainments in religion, yet must they be dis- 
satisfied with the general prospect; yet would I ask them, if num- 
bers of their fellow men may not be involved " in the gall of bitter- 
ness, and in the bond of iniquity," owing to those numerous defec- 
tions from the primitive Church, to which their own has been 
proved to have led the way. 

It is by broad and extended, and not by narrow and limited views, 
that they should determine the great question, whether they have 
or have not been blessed of God. It is by inquiring, not of their 
prejudices, but at the tribunal of their consciences, what would in 
all probability have^een the existing state of the Redeemer's king- 
dom, had there been from the dawn of the reformation, no schism 
and no heresy. 1 can easily conceive, that it would have been in- 
finitely more flourishing, more thronged with the faithful and peni- 
tent, and therefore more adorned with grace and glory. They may 
not credit it. They may think their discernment more acute, their 
judgment less liable to err, and may continue in these opinions, un- 
til the curtain falls, and the truth is ascertained in a quarter from 
which there is no appeal. For one, I am content to abide the issue, 
by remaining where I am. I desire no more authentick testimony 
to convince me, that however unworthy of the honour, it is in the 
bosom of the Church founded by Christ and his Apostles. If any 
other could be pjoved to have done more worthily, to have embraced 

2G 



234 



purer doctrines, to have exhibited greater devotion to our common , 
Lord, to have enjoined upon its members a closer walk in -all holy 
obedience, or to have received higher evidences of the divine bless- 
ing resting upon it; I would not hesitate to enter its sanctuary, and 
declare myself of its communion. But persuaded by a long course 
of reading j persuaded by personal experience and observation, of 
its utter impracticability, here will I live and here will I die, bless- 
ing God for his unspeakable benefits, and commending my own, and 
the souls of all my fellow men into the safe keeping of the holy 
Jesus, Amen, 



SERMON XIX. 



isaiah lxii, 1. 

For Zioiis sahe will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem 's sake 
I will not rest,until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness y 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

TO the argument already presented, unfolding, as I appre 
hend in a very conclusive manner, the evils flowing from the first 
presbyterian schism, it may be added, that the variety of opinions 
which prevail amongst protestants, upon the subject of revealed re- 
ligion, has proved a serious obstacle to its general reception. When 
invited to accept the gospel of Christ, men are extremely apt to re 
ply ; You Christians differ so much, and in some instances so mate- 
rially in relation to its principles, that we of the world scarcely 
know what to believe, and of course what to embrace. On the one 
hand, the Trinitarian system demands our assent, and on the other, 
the unitarian. Here, some zealous Calvinist enforces the doctrine 
of God's predestination of whatsoever comes to pass, and there, the 
equally zealous Arminian denies the dogma, and earnestly contends 
for the free and uncontrolled agency of the human will. Here, the 
pulpit resounds with the sentence of eternal reprobation pronounced 



235 



against the wicked, and there, the soft cheering voice of universal 
pardon and forgiveness salutes the ear, and anticipates the final 
entrance of every soul of man within the blissful regions of life and 
immortality. And so the contrast might be run through the thou^ 
sand variant and opposing doctrines which disturb the peace and 
harmony of Christendom, We would fain learn the truth, inasmuch 
as we are told, that the truth shall make us free. But when the 
learned and talented disagree; when the hand, and tongue, and pen 
of every man are lifted against his neighbour; When polemick di= 
vinity has usurped the empire of reason, and thrown a veil of dark- 
ness and uncertainty over the records of inspiration; Who shall 
decide? Who resolve the doubts, that force themselves upon the 
inquiring mind ? Who serve as a pioneer to clear away the rubbish 
from before the eye of faith, and put us in possession of the sure 
word of prophecy, the genuine and uncorrupted oracles of God ? 

Yes, Brethren, this is the common language of mankind, the 
familiar argument, with which many justify their delinquency in 
not taking up the cross of Christ. Their vision is distracted, their 
thoughts perplexed, their understanding darkened. As if placed at 
the extremity of the subterranean labyrinth of Arsinoe, where no 
less than twelve palaces, and three thousand chambers by their 
intricate windings confounded every attempt to revisit the busy 
haunts of men, they imagine themselves lost in a spiritual labyrinth 
of conjectures, without a clue to retrievement, without a c3'nosure, 
the shining of one bright and brilliant s'tar to guide them in safety 
and in honour to the destined port of heaven. 

I feel the plausibility ., more than the plausibility, I feel the weight 
of this train of reasoning; it bears hard upon us; in our present 
divided state, there is no little difficulty in giving it such an answer 
as shall prove satisfactory to the more intellectual portion of the 
community, But were all orthodox Christians united in the One 
true Church of Christ, were the fundamental truths of inspiration 
only to be found within her pale, and not entertained in common with 
a single sectarian denomination, we might with far greater ease 
repel the argument, and effectually put down the crest of skep^ 
ticism of this description. We might not indeed agree upon the 
merely speculative topicks of divinity, about the divine decrees for 
instance ; but then we might assert with invincible force what is 
even now true, that upon such subjects there is room for honest di« 



236 



versity of sentiment, when the nature and character of that revela- 
tion is considered, which alone justly claims to be divine. 

You can scarcely fail to remember that Peter himself, speaking 
of the epistles of his beloved brother Paul, expressly says, " in which 
are some things hard to be understood." And without entering into a 
minute investigation of the particular points alluded to, I am content 
to inquire in general terms, if there is any good and valid reason to 
object to this partial obscurity designedly, if you please, investing 
the inspiration of heaven. Are there not two volumes containing all 
things material for us to know and understand? That fair volume y 
wherein our great Creator shines pre-eminent in power and glory ; 
wherein his voice as the voice of many waters is heard amid the 
strife of elements, and his goodness, richer than mines of gold, is 
seen to float upon every breeze, and sparkle in every ray of light; to 
descend in the shower, and rise with the verdure, that cheers, enli- 
vens, and sustains the heart of man ? That brighter and more glori- 
ous volume, wherein the soul is taught its value and its powers, its 
august creation in the image of God, and its future destiny, when, 
after being, in the prison of this world, brooded and quickened by 
the Holy Spirit, it shall eventually burst " yon azure shell," and 
tread the courts of heaven ? 

Inquire then at the shrine of nature, and can ye unfold her se- 
crets, the precise manner in which she performs her cunning work ? 
How the sun repairs his rays, or the diamond acquires its crystal 
hue? How the minutest atoms of the air, the ocean, and the land 
conspire to bring forth all, that is beautiful to the eye and gratifying 
to the taste? No, no, you can do no such thing. There is here a 
limit to the deepest research, a point beyond which the inquiry of 
the proudest intellect is completely baffled. You cannot satisfy 
yourselves; you cannot control the faith of others. And is this uni- 
versally admitted? Is it proved beyond a doubt by innumerable 
theories contradicting each other at every turn, and producing as 
many schools in philosophy, as were ever marshalled in the pro- 
vince of theology, how could the skeptick wonder, should orthodox 
Christians of the same Church differ on the purely speculative con- 
cerns of divinity? 

Our blessed Saviour did not manifest the like emotions of surprise 
m his nocturnal interview with Nicodemus. He rather knew too 
"^ell the infirmity of the hu.man mind, and addressed him thus, "If 



237 



I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye 
Relieve if I tell you of heavenly things." Even his own inspired 
Apostles did not always agree, or why the controversy between Pe- 
ter and Paul upon the subject of circumcision? And so with real, 
genuine, unaffected believers, they might continue to vary as they 
now do in their construction of numerous passages of the scriptures 
not essential to be understood in their remote causes and relations, 
and upon which a diversity of views would be far from working 
death eternal; since it might be always traced to the mere fallibility 
of the human mind, and instead of exhibiting a wanton rejection of 
the divine counsels and authority, it would only show, that were 
they perfectly clear and unveiled in siich particulars, not one sound 
of intellectual discord would be heard within the pale of the true 
Zion ; in every thing, her altars would be distinguished for concord 
as well as for love. She would be one and undivided upon the 
prominent doctrines. Unanimity would be her motto, and her em- 
blem the full, free, and undistinguished communion of the faithful 
followers of Jesus. 

Even now, I grant, that the divided opinions of Christians ought 
to present no insurmountable obstacles to a practical reception of 
the gospel. I grant it, from the consideration, that all who really 
deserve the name unite in the essentials of our common faith. If St. 
Peter tells us of Paul's epistles, that they contain " some things 
hard to be understood," he still reminds us of the character of those, 
upon whom this obscurity exerts a pernicious influence. These are 
his words, " which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as 
they do'also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." And 
what is wresting, but perverting to improper uses? What is intend- 
ed by the epithet unlearned, but being ignorant of the great princi- 
ples of the doctrine of Christ? What, by the term unstable, but be- 
ing tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine? What is the ex- 
tent of this perversion, this ignorance, this instability? Men of this 
description wrest not merely the language and the reasonings of St. 
Paul, but also of the other scriptures to their own destruction. They 
come not to their study with reverence and docility ; with submis- 
sive minds ready to be informed and guided by the teachings of 
the Spirit; with open hearts prepared to honour and receive with 
meekness the ingrafted word. They rather come as captious 
enttcks and conceited sciolists, determined to array their own in- 



238 



telleets, their own reason, their own wisdom, against the intellect^ 
the reason, and the wisdom of God. What more then can we ex= 
pect of such vain and arrogant pretenders, but that they should 
always dwell on mysteries; that they should cavil about il the secret 
things," which " belong to the Lord our God," and stumble over 
those which, the prophet tells us, " are revealed and belong unto us 
and our children forever?" 

It is certainly thus with all the determined skepticks of our age. 
They perplex and weary themselves with subjects far beyond the 
ken of the proudest intellect; while many possessing a nominal 
faith are too apt, as it is written, to be " proud, knowing nothing, 
but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh 
envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men 
of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is 
godliness." Whereas true Christians have ever repaired to the 
study of holy oracles, with the sole object of ascertaining the in- 
spiration of their origin, and the divinity of their Author. And 
having satisfied themselves upon these all important particulars; 
having found Him, wlora their souls loved, they have bowed with 
reverence to his sceptre, and faithfully treasured up in their hearts 
all those sayings and doings, which are too clear and explicit to be 
otherwise than ignorantly or presumptuously misunderstood. 

If any man insists, that our future condition is foreordained with- 
out foresight of faith and obedience; they know, that the righteous, 
and the righteous only, are predestinated to life eternal. If it is 
said, that a few sighs and tears, heaved and shed in a dying hour, 
will always ensure the divine pardon and forgiveness ; they know, 
that an early repentance, bringing forth for a long time fruits meet 
for repentance, will assuredly be followed by the salvation of the 
soul. If a knowledge of the precise instant when the heart is 
changed and the affections purified, is deemed an indispensable 
prerequisite to the Christian character ; they know, that "the wind 
bloweth where it listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but 
canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every 
one that is born of the Spirit ;" and that to be born of the Spirit, 
no matter when or where, is the all momentous evidence of our 
having made our peace with God. If a hue and cry is raised 
against faith on the one hand, or against works on the other; they 
know, that, wherever the gospel is preached, both combined arc 



239 

absolutely essential, in order to enable us to lay hold upon its most 
precious promises. If the character and the redemption of Christ 
are controverted, as to his divinity and the vicarious nature of his 
sacrifice; they know, that the question is asked and answered by 
St. John, " Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? 
He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever 
denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father;" they know, in 
whom they have believed, and only look for the mercy of God unto 
eternal life, through the merits and obedience, the sufferings, death, 
and atonement for sin of Him, who throughout the pages of inspira- 
tion is commended to our faith and love, as the Saviour of the 
world, as possessing the only "name under heaven given among 
men whereby we must be saved." 

Yes, Brethren, ask the pious and the godly in this world, those, 
whom you could not hesitate to pronounce sincere, faithful, and 
practical Christians, and they will all concur in the belief of these 
great and glorious truths. Differing, as they do, about many ques= 
tions upon things, for them too high, and even in as favourable an 
opinion of each other as could be wished, they will yet universally 
coincide in these cardinal features of the gospel, and pronounce of 
all, who maintain and conscientiously act upon them, that they are 
the true children of God and the inheritors of the kingdom of 
heaven. Notwithstanding minor discrepancies in opinion, not- 
withstanding what I believe to be honest shades of difference in the 
interpretation of obscure passages of the sacred volume, I can 
therefore upon such ground urge all men to embrace these funda- 
mental principles of Christianity, and so embrace them, that ac- 
cording to the Apostle, "being made free from sin, and become- 
servants to God, 5 ' they may have their " fruit unto holiness, and the 
end everlasting life.'' 

Even now, I can enforce the same result from the consideration, 
that however Christians, whether nominal or real, may disagree 
about the import of the bible, it still contains the words of truth 
and soberness, I will explain my meaning, and the use to which I 
intend t<^ apply it, by illustrations drawn from the mysteries of na- 
ture. Philosophers have entertained different opinions about light 
and heat, about gravitation and magnetick attraction, about the 
<!ause of the tides and the reason of the earth's revolving round 
tfee sun in an eliptical rather than a circular orbit. But let them 



240 



speculate and decide as they please ; let us range ourselves on the 
one side or the other of their numerous theories, it must still be 
evident to the most superficial observer, that all these operations 
of nature exist ; that light is pleasant to the eyes, and warmth ex- 
hilarating to the body; that let the exact centre and principle of 
gravity or magnetism be ever so uncertain, heavy substances are 
still drawn to the surface of the earth, and the needle in the di- 
rection of the pole; that the tides of the ocean still ebb and flow 
with their accustomed regularity ; and that our planet still performs 
its annual course, producing, with its obliquity to the ecliptic, the 
seasons and their change. And why? The discordant opinions of 
philosophers effect no alteration in the established laws and proper- 
ties of matter. Nature remains the same, whether they continue 
or abandon their experiments, whether they penetrate her secret 
recesses, or are forced to loiter in her vestibule. 

So also in relation to the religion of the bible; Is it in reality 
the word and the will of God ; the revelation of his own glorious 
attributes and perfections ; the counsel of his wisdom in whatever 
relates to our duty towards him, our neighbour, and ourselves? 
Let men construct ever so many variant creeds ; let them go on 
denouncing each other for bigots and fools, with a hundred times 
the zeal and impetuosity they are now prone to indulge, and still 
within the lids of that precious volume there will remain the im~ 
perishable truths of heaven ; they cannot mar them by their intel- 
lectual combats; they cannot, as our Saviour says, "make one 
hair" of their own heads " white or black how much more then 
shall they not fail to change the unchangeable fiat of Omnipotence, 
by presuming to " put darkness for light, and light for darkness." 
To attempt it, is indeed the height of folly, the most extravagant of 
all the extravagant absurdities of which humanity is susceptible. 
We might as well hope to move the earth by our tread, or to blow- 
out the lights of the firmament with our feeble breath. Against 
the bible, as against the Church, the gates of hell shall not prevail. 
We have the power, the honour, and the veracity of God to sustain 
it, and the consequence is, that long after creation shall return to 
the original void out of which it was spoken into existence, its 
truths, its good tidings of good, shall accompany the spirits of just 
men made perfect to those blessed mansions, where in the presence 
of the Father of Lights, there will be no errours to distract, no dis-. 



ciepancies of sentiment to reconcile, no voice of discord to inter- 
rupt the harmony of congenial souls. 

And now I ask you, what is the fair, the only honest inference to 
be gathered from a statement clear, obvious, and convincing as this ? 
Trouble yourselves less and less about the doctrines and opinions 
of others. By your own, are ye to stand or fall in the day of 
judgment. Remember the words of Christ, reproving the anxiety 
of Peter to fathom the future destiny of John, " What is that to 
thee? Follow thou me." " Search the scriptures ; for in them ye 
think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me." 
If it were possible to enter heaven under the wing of some highly 
gifted mortal, ye might do well to consult him as your oracle, to 
bend your own to his interpretation of the word, and yield implicit 
reliance where reliance would be justly due. But as it is, when 
the soul that sinneth, it shall die, when the man that errs, he alone 
shall account for his errours, I entreat you to take the bible into 
your own hands, and to peruse it as for the life of your souls, rather 
than with impressions weakened by the clashing opinions of others, 
were they infinitely more repugnant and contradictory than they 
are. You cannot peruse it long, provided you accompany that pe- 
rusal with earnest prayer to God for the illumination and guidance 
of his Spirit, without perceiving, that its more momentous truths 
lie within a narrow compass ; that they speak plainly and directly 
to the heart 5 and that it is impossible to withstand them, without 
experiencing self-reproach and self-condemnation. Whereas the 
slightest yielding is the commencement of that good work, which 
God hath promised not to leave unfinished. It is the incipient 
movement of the giant, faith, to cast off the shackles, that confine 
you to the servitude of sin; of that faith, which, as its power in- 
creases, and its liveliness improves, accelerates in the same ratio 
its ascending march, until proceeding from strength to strength, it 
at length produces " the work of righteousness," which " shall be 
peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance 
forever." 

And then, what will ye care, for the harsh, incongruous notes 
of polemick divinity? What will ye care, if opposing sectarians 
prefer, that the weapons of their warfare should be " carnal and 
not u mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds?" 
Ye will indeed weep over their errours: ye will pray God to re.= 

2H 



242 



move their blindness and asperity, and to implant within them H c 
new heart and a new spirit." But if they yet persist to fold the 
shadow and cast away the substance of religion, their speculative 
controversies will prove lighter in your estimation than the dust of 
the balance, instead of furnishing the smallest pretext, for aban- 
doning the service of your God and Saviour, for apostatizing from 
his word of life, and renouncing the riches of his grace. 

Nor must I omit to mention, that even now, I can prove the ex- 
ceeding folly of being induced to neglect religion, owing to the 
distracted opinions of its professors, by adverting to the fact, that 
this circumstance affords no refuge to the sinner, when the snares 
of death encompass him around ; when smitten by the hand of the 
Lord, and stretched upon the bed of languishment, he feels, and 
trembles as he feels, that a few hours will terminate his mortal strife*, 
and dismiss his squl to its long and dread account. For in this 
exigency, provided reason retains her empire, to what topicks of 
divinity does he bend the listening ear, on what rely, as embracing 
within the narrowest scope the essence of the one thing needful. 
Talk to him about the technicks of theology, those abstruse and 
metaphysical questions to which I have referred, and which from 
the time of Calvin have been the fertile sources of much of that 
ill omened hostility and un charitableness, so prone to rankle in the 
bosom of the mere religionist, and you broach a set of theraes y that. 
appear no better than a mockery to his alarmed, despairing soul, 
Talk to him even about the minor truths of Christianity, and they 
are entirely incompetent to compose his fluttering thoughts and 
faltering heart. I do not mean by this to depreciate their real, in 
trmsick value in the season of health and vigour. But still, what 
are they to the poor sinner in the very act of shaking hands with 
death, compared with the higher and more experimental doctrines 
of religion ? 

Alas, Brethren, tune has become too contracted, and therefore toe 
precious to be lavished in their discussion. He wants to learn the 
nature of that repentance, whereby he may conciliate the divine 
mercy and forgiveness, through Christ. He wants to listen to some 
scriptural views of that faith, whereby he may yet range himself 
beneath the banner of Jesus, and cast all his cares, all the sad and 
intolerable burden of his sins at the foot of the Redeemer's cross. 
He wants to hear explained the few remaining tests left to person? 



243 



m his condition, whereby through earnest self-examination, he may 
investigate the state of his soul, and ascertain what prospects float 
before his eyes, what hopes he may cherish, what internal demon- 
strations he may have, that God has been very good and gracious to 
him, that the wounds of his peace are healed, and the avenue open- 
ed to his future enjoyment of the blissful presence of his God. 

He wants to hear of these, and of nothing else. : These are the 
themes, the only themes fitted to engross the thoughts, and chain 
down the attention of the dying sinner. And oh, what contempt 
do they not pour upon the larger number of those contests of words ? 
those heart-burnings of envy, and jealousy, and malice, which di- 
vide and embroil the professed followers of the Lamb. Bear wit? 
ness, ye that are now in paradise. Ye cannot communicate your 
minds to us, but we know as certainly as if they were plainly re- 
vealed and submitted to our inspection, that ye are amazed at the 
retrospect of those enormous trifles, in which ye were once partially 
engaged, and to which men are now so prone to devote the chief 
labour of their hands and hearts. Bear witness, ye also, that are 
doomed to dwell in the reverse of paradise. The secrets of your 
dread habitation are alike incommunicable to us, but with equal 
certainty do we know, that ye would give the wealth of worlds, 
had ye never stumbled upon that mountain of calamity and ruin, 
the wretched, miserable contentions to which the gospel of peace 
has been perverted ; had ye remained uninfluenced by these con- 
vulsions, and prepared yourselves, by a cordial reception and prac- 
tice of more heavenly things, to appear among the redeemed in 
Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon your heads. 

Allow me therefore, Brethren, to entreat you to profit by these 
easily to be imagined disclosures proceeding from the world to 
come. While here below, liable to be enticed, and drawn aside by 
the metaphysical collisions of Christians, there are unquestionably 
"some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned 
and unstable, wrest as they do also the other scriptures unto their 
own destruction." But remember that were it possible to gain the 
most accurate knowledge of their true nature and character, they 
are of a description not calculated to advance our progress a single 
step towards the attainment of the joys and immunities of heaven. 
Remember that the goodness, the mercy, the justice, and the 
righteousness of God, all of them forbid the idea, that be should 



244 



wrap in obscurity, or seclude in mystery, one particle of that truth 
which it would be life for us to know, and death, eternal death, not 
to understand. So far from this, "Light is sown for the righteous, 
and gladness for the upright in heart." According to the faithful 
and true Witness, " This is life eternal, that they might know thee 
the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."' Not 
however, to the extent of prying out and resolving all his ways ; 
although even here there is something analogous to what painters 
term the "clare-obscure," enabling us to see as through a glass 
darkly, some faint and glimmering rays of the glory, which shall 
be revealed. But still enough to know, that he is our Maker and 
Preserver, the Author of all present and future happiness, our re- 
conciled God and Father in Jesus Christ, the God, who has prom- 
ised to reward the obedient and to punish the transgressors : Enough 
to know, of his only begotten Son, that he is the Redeemer of the 
world and the Saviour of sinners, our Mediator and Intercessor 
with the Father, the Bread of Life and the Propitiation for our sins, 
the gracious Being to whom, we have only to look in faith and obey 
in sincerity, in order to be saved. 

Oh then, that we might never be induced to neglect so great 
salvation ; that we might be zealously engaged to work it out with 
fear and trembling, with all our heart, and mind, and soul, and 
strength. To others, we should devolve the task of settling curious 
questions, and unprofitable dogmas; to others, the too daring pre- 
sumption of dwelling exclusively upon the many " things hard to 
be understood," as if they constituted the life and soul of religion. 
But for ourselves, humble and lowly in our own eyes, penitent, be- 
lieving, and obedient in the sight of God, we should " press toward 
the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus 
we should covet earnestly the best gifts, and obtaining them in the 
way of God's appointment, we should live the life, and we should 
die the death of the righteous. 

By such arguments as these, I can therefore, even under existing 
.circumstances, satisfactorily to myself, and I trust to you, obviate 
every supposed objection to our divine religion growing out of the 
unhappy divisions and animosities subsisting between brethren 
professing the same faith. My object indeed has been to present 
them in such a manner, that infidels themselves might feel their 
force, and surrender at discretion what I am willing to consider the 



245 



strongest of their citadels. But after all, what are the most pow- 
erful arguments in their eyes, what in the estimation of eve* less 
determined adversaries to the truth, when they believe that a con- 
fused medley of sects, by their irreconcilable opinions and bicker- 
ings, furnish ocular demonstration, that a religion productive of 
such dissentions cannot proceed from the God of order, and har- 
mony, and peace? I tell you, Brethren, that as men are more 
struck by the visible heavens, for the very reason that they are 
seen, than by the invisible, so are they more affected by the religious 
discord they behold, than by the religious concord, which the bible 
pxacts. They adopt indeed a very good rule, if applied to other 
subjects. They judge of Christianity by its effects, and shame 
and confusion of face be upon us, that this divine system of 
truth and holiness will not stand the test, in the important particu- 
lars of mutual love and charity, for no other reason than this, we 
are determined to be divided, notwithstanding Christ our Saviour 
prayed, " Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom 
thou hast given me, that they may be oxe, as we are." 

With whom the fault lies, I have shown you. It is not with us. 
We adhere, and with our views cannot cease to adhere to the Church 
established by the Apostles, under the direction of Christ, and the 
supervision of the Holy Ghost. Our orthodox fellow Christians 
have either cast it away, or they are the successors of those who 
did, and hence the necessity of their returning to its bosom, before 
the infidel can be reclaimed and made to give up the strongest ar- 
gument, he is enabled to wield against the truth of the gospel. 
Let them do this, and for the reasons assigned, I am content that 
they shall bring with them their purely speculative opinions. I am 
more anxious for an agreement about the facts recorded in the 
scriptures, and intended to command universal obedience. Let 
these be acknowledged, received, and acted upon, by the leading 
denominations of the protestant faith ; let the precomposed publick 
worship of the bible; let the Church of the bible be embraced with 
mind and heart, and soul, by the presbyterians, the congregational- 
lsts, the methodists, the baptists, and 1 dare engage that not many 
years would elapse, before open and disguised infidelity, before 
unitarianism and universalism, with every false way, would yield 
to a Zion, thus augmented in numbers, and, as Irenseus said, " com- 
posed to unity." It is that fatal schism which he denounced, as 



246 



Paul denounced it, and which arrays so many orthodox Christians 
against each other; it is this that gives strength, and confidence, 
and audacity to the freethinkers and hereticks of the age. 

At present, they are chiefly sustained in their errours by our wretch- 
ed feuds and jealousies : By the spiritual wars, we wage ; the intoler- 
ant and vituperative language, we employ ; the proselyting plans, 
we concert to thin each other's ranks; the fire and fagot system, 
we maintain against the souls, if not the bodies of equally honest 
believers in Christ. And all this because Churches of human origin 
have crept in amongst us; because whatever in religion is founded 
upon the devices of man's understanding, invariably calls up, in 
some shape or other, the bitter feelings and vindictive passions of 
our nature; because schism, even in its most favourable aspect, is, 
in the judgment of Paul, one among the many fatal lusts which 
war in our members, ; " For whereas there is among you envying, 
and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For 
while one saith, I am of Paul ; and another, I am of Apollos ; are ye 
not carnal ?" But could we only contrive to unite under the banners 
of the true Apostolick Church, could all the faithful and godly com- 
bine to come out as one man to the help of the Lord against the 
mighty, I am persuaded that his blessing would so crown our la- 
bours, that the great enemy of souls would receive a blow, more fatal 
to his cause, than any inflicted, since the foot of Christ was plant- 
ed upon his head, at the hill of Calvary. 

Pray ye therefore, Christians, ye children of the promise, wher- 
ever located, pray ye, in the sincerity of your souls, for the peace 
of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love her. Crush the mon 
ster, schism, and her direst earthly foe will be crushed. Resolve 
that she shall enjoy this advantage over her adversaries, and your 
own eyes shall behold, the righteousness thereof go forth as bright 
ness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. A?ie> t . 



m 



247 



SERMON XX. 

isaiah lxii. 1. 

For Zions sake will I not hold my -peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 

WITH the present discourse will terminate all the remarks, 
which I designed to submit in defence of the Church I love, the in- 
stitutions and the doctrines my head and my heart approve. 
Throughout the discussion, I have endeavoured to keep within the- 
rules of decorum, to avoid all satirical as well as insulting language, 
and to make no assertions, which were not capable of being fully 
sustained, either by unanswerable proofs and authorities, or by the 
fair and legitimate deductions of reason. If I have erred in manner 
or in matter, it has not been intentionally, neither with the inclina- 
tion to lead astray, nor the wish to wound the feelings of a single 
individual, that bears and loves the Christian name. 

Most cordially do I agree, that invective is not argument ; that 
ridicule is not the test of truth; that unfounded statements recoil 
with invincible force upon such as dare to enlist them in their ser- 
vice. If there were no higher and holier motive to influence my 
conduct, and guide me in the way 1 should go, a just estimate of 
worldly policy would alone teach me, that in the end, candour and 
sincerity, forbearance and charity, ever triumph over artifice and 
fraud, inveterate rancour and bitter revilings. By foul language and 
envenomed epithets, no man hath yet approved himself to the con- 
science of the enlightened Christian. To authority he will bow. 
to reason he will lend a willing ear; but let the bigot rave, and the 
-slanderer riot in detraction, he will not be the creature of their fash- 
ioning, nor the recipient of their bile. 

No inducement then have I to follow their example. None that 
can be good, and none that is bad. I do not calculate to laugh a 
sectarian out of his prejudices, and I know, that he will never relin- 
quish them at the nod of disdain, or the sneer of reproach. Argu- 



24a 



meats however must not lose their weight from being too tarneiy 
expressed. There is an air of holy boldness, that should mark the 
language of truth. It proceeds not from a wavering, dubious mind- 
Its object is not to deal in ambiguous phrases, to trumpet forth an 
uncertain sound, and beguile the favouring smiles of all sorts of 
men. But its speech, though seasoned with grace, is firm and de- 
cided, free as the air it breathes, and uncompromising as the princi= 
pies it advances. When did Jesus of Nazareth accommodate his 
sayings to the passions and prejudices of the multitude? When did 
he flatter their vanity or attempt to heal the hurt of the daughter of 
his people slightly? In him, Brethren, there was no sin, neither 
was guile found in his mouth. His maxims, his 'doctrines varied 
not with time, place, or circumstance. He had not one for the scribe, 
and another for the publican; one for the high priest and another 
for the pharisee. By such means buying golden opinions from all, 
and on no account venturing to stir a debatable question, or oppose 
a long indulged and favourite errour. But he could speak with 
plainness and expostulate with freedom, though his mission was love, 
and his merciful goodness, as unlimited as the universe. 

With his example before my eyes, I have therefore no apology to 
offer for the fearlessness, with which I have breasted the tide of 
popular sentiment, and exposed errours imbibed in infancy, and 
cherished to manhood and even declining age; no apology for urg- 
ing, with zeal and inflexibility, opinions derived from the scriptures, 
and that I conscientiously believe to be true as God is true. My heart 
acquits me from all sinister designs. I am not ashamed upon this sub- 
ject to avow the most secret sentiments of my soul. I know, that it is 
not polluted by a hostile feeling towards the person of any man. I 
affirm with confidence, that it is not imbittered by a vindictive temper 
towards either of the various denominations of Christians. But 
where they do err, surely it is my duty, without impeaching their 
motives, or detracting from their piety, to canvass their principles.. 
Where they do entertain and propagate unfounded views of the 
Church of the living God, it is my privilege, as well as my duty, to 
vindicate her from every unjust aspersion, and contribute all in my 
power to exhibit her, in her true light, uncontaminated in doctrine, 
and unsullied in glory. 

In the preceding effort, it is not however my weakness to believe* 
that I shall succeed to the extent I could wish. I am too sensible- 



249 



of the nature of human bias; how tenacious we all are of our youth^ 
ful predilections ; what extraordinary energy of character it requires 
td disabuse the mind of their influence, however wrong, I am also 
aware that those very features of the Church, which serve to recom- 
mend her most strongly to the affection of her children, are precise- 
ly those, least adapted to conciliate the esteem of the modern reli- 
gionist. He either wants something more rigid and austere to the 
eye, or he is too excitable, of too enthusiastick a temperament, to 
be gratified Vith her grave appearance and moderate sentiments. 
She is too cheerful in her piety for some, and too cold and lukewarm 
for others ! With either class, she has too little, while, with the men 
of the world, she has too much religion! But to her praise be it 
spoken, she is in no danger of being dashed in pieces upon Scylla, 
or of being ingulphed in Charybdis. She neither mistakes preten- 
sion for faith, nor freethinking for liberality ; a demure countenance 
for a renovated heart, nor the love of the world for the love of God, 
Avoiding all extremes, she is rather devout without pomp, and faith- 
ful without boasting; glad without gayety, and rational without 
licentiousness. In a word, exactly calculated for sensible,judicious, 
and pious Christians. I care not what may be their condition, or 
what their profession, Whether they are rich or poor, learned or un- 
learned, addicted to the labours of the head, or the work of the hands. 
I only tisk for good minds devested of prejudice on the one side, and 
disposed to investigate on the other; to read, think, and judge for 
themselves; and I am certain, that the Church, and all, which she 
receives and contains, will meet with their warmest approbation. 

This is emphatically the age of inquiry. Its spirit has gone 
abroad, It is actively and unremittingly employed in the various 
departments of art and science ; and religion must and will receive 
a large share of its attention. When Christ declares, that " whoso- 
ever forsaketh not all that he hath, cannot be his disciple," intelli- 
gent persons will not be satisfied with adhering to any opinions 
upon the sole ground of their having been the received opinions of 
their ancestors. Such a principle would continue the larger por- 
tion of mankind in a state of heathen superstition to the end of time. 
If they will not hear Christ, and be influenced by the doctrines, 
which are according to godliness, because their progenitors would 
not, or could not, then are they destined to bow the knee to Baal, 
aiitil the world, and the fashion thereof shall have passed away. 

21 



250 



But is this desirable ? Can there be any Christians disposed to ac~- ' 
quiesce in the propriety of this decision? Let them then evince^ 
their disapprobation, by discarding the self-same doctrine from their 
personal creed. It is high time to look at things as they are, and 
not as gilded over and mystified by preceding generations, however 
honest and worthy. It is high time to strip the evil genius, schism, 
of its meretricious dress, and expose it in all the naked deformity of 
its features. The intellectual and reflecting are not so deeply com- 
mitted, as to be incapable of bursting their bonds, and paying their 
homage at the shrine of bible truth. A calm and dispassionate 
view of the existing dissentions, and respectively hostile attitude of 
the numerous religious sects will be sufficient to convince theniy. 
that all this cannot be the work of a God of love and harmony ; that 
other traits should distinguish tbe true " people of his pasture, and 
the sheep of his hand;" that they must surrender their human sys- 
tems and human Churches; and acknowledge that the reformed 
world requires to be reformed anew. 

But how is this to be effected? By recourse to the bible, and where 
the bible is susceptible of different interpretations, by recurring tc^ 
the period, when unity prevailed, and inspired truth presided in the 
congregations of the faithful. As Dryden said, 

" In doubtful questions 'tis the safest way 

" To learn what unsuspected ancients say : 

" For 'tis not likely we should higher soar 

" In search of heaven than all the Church before." 

The disciples of Christ were first called Christians at Antioch, and 
not at Geneva. And how was the Church at Antioch, how were 
its sister Churches of the first centuries constructed? What was 
their government, and what their ministry? What their publick 
worship and their doctrinal faith? It is by gleaning from such 
sources, that we can only hope to commence a new era in the his- 
tory of Christendom, and therefore have I availed myself of their 
combined testimony * therefore have I clearly proved, that when th* 
Church was established and ordered in strict conformity to the 
scriptures, and as we would have it established and ordered, that then 
there existed peace, and harmony, and love; that all genuine Chris- 
tians were of the same mind ; could worship at the same altar; could 
reverence the same ministers of Jesus; and partake at one table of 
the same flesh and blood of their redemption. 



To exhibit a scene like this in modern times, we must relinquish 
till that is novel, and revive all that is old in religion. We must re- 
pair the many breaches that have been made in the walls of Zion 5 
and restore her to the state of original simplicity and purity. For 
in divinity, a moment's reflection should satisfy us, that the course 
of inquiry must be directly the reverse of what it is in natural sci- 
ence. It must be backward and not forward ; backward to the foun- 
tain head and last revelation of God, rather than forward, busied 
in a vain search for new light and new doctrines. A distinction 
far from being sufficiently observed, and to whose neglect may be 
justly attributed all the evils, which have been most unpropitiously 
grafted into the only pure system of faith a.id morals. Only look 
at natural science. It has been constantly improving, because it 
was susceptible of improvement. The ancients were here compara- 
tively ignorant and stupid, The moderns have far outstripped their 
lingering steps, and are still barely upon the threshold of what they 
anticipate will hereafter be discovered in the revolution of ages, 

In religion on the contrary, an entirely different result presents 
itself, and for the very reason, that when the volume of inspiration 
was closed, it no longer admitted of emendation or addition. It was 
perfect then as it can be now. Notwithstanding every effort that 
has been made by curiously inquisitive minds, it has been, and is, 
impossible for them to be wise above what is written. Even bib* 
lical learning and criticism derive all their value from the success 
they have experienced in establishing the authenticity and true 
reading of the scriptures, as they were originally possessed and un- 
derstood by the ancient disciples. And what do protestants think 
of the corruptions introduced during the dark ages? They reject 
them as unauthorized and unfounded. They compare them with 
what prevailed before they soiled the pure ermine of the Church, 
and employ the word reformation itself, because it carries them back 
to the first and purest ages. 

What credit then can we give to the more recent floods of light, 
that have been professedly shed upon the Christian world ? Have 
their adherents improved upon Paul and his brother Apostles; upon 
the doctrines they taught, and the Church they founded, under the 
guidance of Christ and the Holy Spirit? Then is division an im- 
provement. Then is the extracting from the bible doctrines irre- 
concilably opposed to each other, an improvement. It is a better 



252 



state of things, that some Christians should maintain, and others de- 
nounce the doctrine of the atonement; that some should assert, and 
others deny the everlasting punishment of the wicked; and so 
throughout all contradictory creeds, it must be a great improvement 
to be constantly harassed and perplexed with the exclamations, 
" Lo here is Christ," and Lo he is " there/'' But what rational be- 
ing, what pious believer can possibly embrace such opinions? It is 
scarcely possible for him, under these circumstances, not to per- 
ceive, that instead of improvement, discord and disunion are melan- 
choly spots and wrinkles upon our holy profession; that instead of 
progressing, there are many particulars in which Christians, as a 
body, have retrograded in the race for the heavenly world, compar- 
ed to what they were in primeval times; and that, to present a 
brighter spectacle in the eyes of the celestial host, they that have 
wandered must return to the bosom of the primitive Church. 

I will not pretend, that it would have the immediate effect of 
evangelizing the world, and producing an unbroken unanimity of 
sentiment. There would still exist some few deniers of Jesus and 
the resurrection. The scorner would still make a mock at sin, and 
the wicked man rejoice in his iniquity. But this I will assert. The 
preachers of heresy of every description would gradually become 
less and less in number, until at length they would be completely 
banished from the face of the earth. An Apostolick ministry, uni- 
ted in one Church, would put them down more effectually than any 
merely human means. I have already shown you, that they are 
invariably opposed to bishops, and let me now say, that as the con- 
tinued dispersion of the Jews is a standing miracle, authenticating 
beyond all doubt the inspiration of the sacred volume; so does this 
remarkable fact furnish a scarcely inferiour or less obvious miracle, 
in favour of the divine institution, and beneficial nature and ten- 
dency of episcopacy . 

If however I am told, that there were many hereticks even in the 
two first centuries ; I answer, that they were uniformly presbyters 
or deacons, and as uniformly opposed by their bishops. I answer, 
that Arius,of the fourth century, the most successful and renowned 
of all the ancient hereticks, was also a presbyter, and that, if he 
did corrupt several of the episcopal order, his sentiments were con- 
demned in a general council composed of nearly three hundred 
bishops, I answer, that his unitarian doctrines were finally extir^ 



253 



pated through the powerful and benign influence of their successors 
in office; and that at this very moment, as if to remind us of their 
origin, they are only publickly taught and enforced by a ministry 

Of PRESBYTERS, 

No longer therefore let us hear of the dangerous usurpation of 
bishops. The danger consists in the rejection of their order. 
Were the maxims of expediency alone consulted, it should obtain 
the approbation of all the orthodox denominations, and be regarded 
as one of the most efficacious bulwarks against the dissemination 
of principles, which they unite in condemning. But we place 
episcopacy upon higher grounds than those of expediency; we 
claim for it the sanction of divine authority; and considering it 
equally binding with the two sacraments of the gospel, we say to 
our pious presbyterian friends of all sects, when you can convince 
lis, that they may be rightfully dispensed with, we shall find little 
difficulty in admitting the validity of your favourite ministerial 
parity. Until then, while we bid you 6 i God speed,*' as to your per- 
sonal progress in the way everlasting; while we commend your 
zeal for heavenly things; and esteem you highly in love for your 
works' sake, we cannot but regret the countenance you now give, 
however indirectly and unintentionally to all manner of heresy and 
schism; we cannot even for your gratification cease to maintain, 
with earnestness and perseverance, those institutions of our Church, 
which are to be traced to the inspired volume, and that the unani- 
mous testimony of all antiquity ascribes to the immediate agency 
and direction of the holy Apostles. 

We rather entreat you as brethren solemnly to pause and reflect 
upon these things. We cannot refrain from indulging the hope, 
ihat diligently examining, and impartially weighing the many ar- 
guments we have to produce, you will ultimately abandon the 
Churches of recent and human origin, and cordially unite with the 
Zion of the Lord of Hosts. It is a confined and mistaken view, 
which limits the subject of inquiry to yourselves alone. You must 
lake a broader range. You must contemplate the effects of division, 
as exhibited in the actual condition of myriads upon myriads of 
your fellow men, and ask your consciences, if their alienation from 
Christ, their neglect of religion, their unsound tenets and delinquent 
practices, are not owing in a great degree to the unhappy dissec- 
tions, so visible in the sounder part of the Christian community. 



254 



They certainly cannot have the slightest tendency to recommend 
our common faith, and I am confident, that they are pregnant with 
incalculable mischief. 

If one of your own Churches is afflicted and annoyed with in- 
testine strife, you do not fail to deplore the injurious consequences 
upon the surrounding neighbourhood, as well as its individual mem- 
bers. You ardently long and pray for the restoration of peace and 
concord. And what is confessedly injurious upon a small scale, 
you should not fail to perceive must be eminently more so upon a 
larger. All other incidental causes combined do not indeed so deep- 
ly wound the general interests of the Redeemer's kingdom, as the 
emulations and wrath, the jealousies and heart-burnings, the crim- 
inations and recriminations of its acknowledged friends. A new 
convert especially often deems it absolutely indispensable, that he 
should become the, thoroughgoing partisan of his particular sect, 
and in too many instances the offensive epithets, he applies to others, 
are felt to be the readiest passports to the confidence and approba- 
tion of his seniors in profession. And why should you not be 
equally engaged in imploring of your heavenly Father speedily to 
remove these evils, as you are those of a less general and conse- 
quently of a less fatal character? It may be, that upon reflection, 
you will find yourselves less anxiously intent upon the good cause 
of union than you ought to be ; and we know, that secret prayer is 
rarely offered, and never accepted unless it proceeds from the heart. 
We know, that however fervent you may be in your other petitions, 
you must become alike fervent in this, before the world of sinners 
are destined to be benefited, by your personal example in giving 
up a party, for the communion and fellowship of the hoh catholick 
or universal Church. 

I design not, Brethren, by these observations to afford any just 
grounds of complaint to our fellow Christians. But faithful, say 
the scriptures, " faithful are the wounds of a friend," and a friend 
I avow myself to all, that are godly in Christ Jesus. In this capaci- 
ty I speak, in this admonish them, that no matter how zealously 
and profitably they may be now employed in the benevolent labours 
of love, they could do more as a body towards promoting the ever- 
lasting* welfare of souls, by the single act of renouncing upon con- 
^ iction the way of schism, than they will be able to effect, in that 
state, if their lives could be prolonged to the age of Methuselah; 



2bh 



and their charities be multiplied ten thousand times ten thousand 
fold. If we. may safely judge of the future from the past, wher- 
ever they erect an orthodox, posterity will behold a heterodox 
Church; wherever they found an evangelical, there will rise upon 
its ruins a non-evangelical school. Such has been proved to be the 
tendency of their ministry and worship ; and so confident I am, of 
its being the natural consequence of the system they espouse, that. 
I cannot but reiterate the persuasion, and implore them no longer 
to furnish the incipient causes of the future prosperity and triumph 
of our mutual antagonists, 

More than this, I cannot and I will not urge. Instead of pursuing 
forebodings not more ungracious to them, than unpleasant to me, I 
will advert to another theme, I will bid you call to remembrance 
all that has been advanced in behalf of our venerable Church: 
and if you concur in opinion with me, that her government and 
ministry are Apostolick ; her rites and sacraments, scriptural ; her 
liturgy, devotional and holy; her doctrines, true and righteous al- 
together; if the arguments submitted have been followed by the 
fullest conviction of their clearness and force, my chief object has 
been successfully accomplished, and a foundation laid for the future 
welfare of this congregation, which, I have every reason to hope 
and believe, the lapse of time will only operate to increase rather 
than diminish. 

The course I have taken was commenced under the conscious- 
ness, that, wherever intelligence exists, abstract opinions are of 
little value. I knew that you would require proofs ; that you would 
not be satisfied with naked assertions. But I also knew that those 
proofs were ready to my hand; that they could be drawn from the 
scriptures, and corroborated from other sources, in endless profusion. 
And have I succeeded in making a judicious selection? Have I 
convinced you, by a statement of facts of incontrovertible weight 
and authority? Now that the work is finished, whatever may be 
its subsequent fate, I shall not regret the labour it has cost me. 
Personal feelings and considerations, from which none of us are 
entirely exempt, should ever yield, in the minister of Jesus, to an 
ardent desire to accelerate the march of truth on the one hand, and 
to retard the progress of errour on the other. With this desire I 
have written, and with this by the divine blessing I shall publish. 
Oar Church in this western country has long been the theme for- 



256 



almost universal reproach, a reproach partaking as much of acri- 
mony as derision, and I would fain aspire to the honour of vindi- 
cating the purity of her character and the excellency of her in- 
stitutions. Opposition may ensue, Invective may be called out 
But they neither alarm, nor intimidate, nor trouble me. Standing 
upon firm ground, I am conscious, that it cannot be swept, by mere 
dint of numbers^ from beneath my feet ; and I am powerfully en- 
couraged by the reflection, that whenever and wherever we have 
met our opponents in the fair, open field of controversy, they have 
been invariably foiled in their arguments. The reason is obvious 
Nothing can withstand the mighty force of truth. Power may 
crush it for a time. The mists of errourmay obscure it for a sea- 
son. But in the sequel, it acquires strength from persecution, repu 
tation from obloquy, and like the sun emerges from behind the clouds 
to shine out with redoubled rays of light and glory. 

While therefore upon many accounts^ I would gladly waive a re- 
ligious controversy, and rejoice at being permitted to escape serious 
animadversion; while 1 would reluctantly challenge any of our 
Christian brethren to embark in a contest^ that might infringe too 
much upon my usual avocations, yet am I not to be deterred, by 
any fears of eventual discomfiture, from giving these discourses to 
the publick, and maintaining them, if necessary, with the spirit, 
the temper, and the intrepidity becoming a Christian, and especial 
ly a steward of the manifold grace of God. Come what come may, 
" For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake 
I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as bright 
ness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii." 

In the meantime, Brethren, let me persuade you to reflect, that 
the circumstance of existing within the pale of the very Church, 
originally planted by the college of the Apostles, and freely water- 
ed with their own, and the blood of numerous worthy confessors ; 
so far from exonerating you, from the obligation to lead a life of 
undissembling faith and holiness, should stimulate you to yet high- 
er exertions to "walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are 
called." If there are any Churchmen, who speak a different lan- 
guage, they miserably deceive themselves, and are justly liable to 
the charge of endeavouring to subvert the faith of others. We re- 
cognise no such delusive evasions of duty. We would seriously 
impress upon your minds, that, in proportion to the peculiar ad- 



£5? 

vantages yon enjoy, you are called upon to measure the- extent of 
your responsibility. 

The Church provides her members with a valid ministry; and 
they are so much the more inexcusable than others, if they fail to 
listen to sound doctrine, and irreproveable precepts, She puts into 
their hands forms of prayer, to be used in publick worship, which 
are adapted to all their spiritual exigencies, which will enable them 
to approximate the throne of grace, and supplicate the Lord in an 
acceptable manner; and if. through any disaffection of their souls 
to him, they are not found to unite in her solemn services, the more 
severely will they be judged, and condemned for these omissions. 
She presents them, in her articles and formularies, with as com- 
pendious a system of evangelical doctrine, as it is practicable to ob- 
tain from the scriptures of truth, wherein they think they have 
eternal life ; and if they do not treasure it up in their souls, and 
cause it to regulate their constant belief and practice, yet deeper 
will the sore displeasure of Almighty God be visited upon them, 
^till more intense will be the consuming fire of his indignation. 

Never then, Brethren, no never, suffer yourselves to be so influ- 
enced by a vain admiration of the external features of the Church, 
as to overlook the strong and emphatick terms, in which she im- 
portunes and requires you to a walk in newness of life." A more 
fatal imagination could not beguile you; one that would prove 
more inimical to your present peace, or more destructive to your 
future happiness. But in all your principles, and in all your con- 
duct, evince to the world, that your attainments in true religion are 
not to be excelled, by the most exemplary Christian, that among 
the dissenters adorns the doctrine of God, our Saviour. It is by a 
faithful and obedient life, a life of heavenly character and import, 
that you will most effectually " put to silence the ignorance of fool- 
ish men,'' and baffle the revilings of those, who "falsely accuse 
your good conversation in Christ." I am far from insisting upon 
loud and boisterous professions. I would not encourage a vain and 
ostentatious parade of graces, which while they decorate the person 
correspond not with the internal emotions of the mind and heart; 
but there are numerous requirements of the law and gospel, through 
whose strict observance, ye are to become wise unto salvation, and 
not one of them will 1 cease to conjure you to obey; not one of them 
can be designedly omitted without incurring the greatest of all 

2K 



privations, the loss of eternal life, The Church inculcates no other 
sentiments. They are inseparably connected with the pure and 
holy living she exacts; and if ye bear true love to her, then will ye 
not hesitate to make those sentiments your own, then will ye gladly 
inure yourselves to that pure and holy living. 

On the whole, Brethren, no one possessed of reason to discrim- 
inate, and the opportunity to judge, can for a moment question the 
pre-eminent excellence of our beloved Zion. She may be calum- 
niated by bigots of severe and contracted minds. She may be de- 
rided by enthusiasts deranged in their intellects. She may be de- 
nounced by skepticks having "an evil heart of unbelief." But 
neither separately nor combined, by craft nor by violence, will 
they be able to prevail against her, to undermine her foundations, 
or level her bulwarks to the ground. By the liberal and unpreju- 
diced ; by the sober and considerate ; by the wise and good ; she 
will ever be regarded, as "a crown of glory in the hand of the 
Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of her God." They 
will perceive, that for long ages, he has been her shield and her 
buckler, the impregnable fortress of her strength and the lofty tow- 
er of her defence. They will appropriate to her y as I have done, 
the prophetick language of Isaiah's vow; and although its more 
brilliant accomplishment may be deferred to the days of millennial 
felicity, then at least will it unquestionably appear in the sio-ht 
of men and angels, that her righteousness has gone forth 
as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth 

Amen . 



259 



SERMON XXI. 

2 Corinthians iii. 17, 
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, 

WERE the actual condition of a country to be always es. 
timated by the partial judgment of its friends, there is not one to 
\ie with these United States, in the devotion of its citizens to the 
cause of liberty, in the ardour with which they maintain it, or the 
jealous spirit by which it is guarded against the invasion of foreign 
and domestick foes. And certainly in a political point of view, 
there is much to warrant the manly pride and elevated self-com- 
placency of our countrymen. Compared with all other nations, we 
do enjoy the freest principles and the freest institutions. Such are 
the constitution and the laws, that the rich have no prerogative to 
oppress the poor; no licence to divert the streams of justice; no 
power to forge the massive chain, and having forged, to fasten its 
links around the bodies or the souls of freemen. 

But while we thus occupy a proud pre-eminence in the scale of 
human rights and privileges; while distant lands admire the splen- 
did, and, as I would fain believe, the substantial fabrick of our 
independence; while they sigh for its rich possession, and spend 
their strength in vain and fruitless efforts to obtain it, there is, in the 
pure eye of God, a species of slavery pervading every portion of 
our favoured clime, baneful in its aspect, corroding in its proper- 
ties, and destructive, fatally destructive, in its operations. It is not 
discerned in manacles for the hands, or fetters for the feet; in the 
yoke of bondage applied to the neck, or the bridle of arbitrary rule 
to the organs of speech. It is not political, it is moral slavery, 
which exists and thrives with us, in common with all other sec- 
tions of the human family. A slavery, that however disgraceful 
and disastrous, still spreads its contagion far and wide; still in- 
cludes us within its expanded sphere, and brings us into captivity 
• o the law of sin and death, 



260 



O Sin, thou wretchedly deformed and hideous monster! How 
dost thou wield the destinies, and control the triumphs of humanity l 
How dost thou infest every haunt of licentiousness and revelry 5 
How dost thou commingle with the gay and festive hours of our day 
and generation ! We cannot stir, but thou art near, to defile with 
thy presence, to contaminate with thy touch, to disgust with thy 
filth and folly. We can make no harbour from the storms of life, 
in which thy intrusive foot is not often shoved, thy smile so winning 
and so treacherous, thy voice so dulcet and so false. There is in- 
deed a remedy, but how few embrace it. There is a sanctuary, 
to which the weary and heavy-laden may always repair, deriving 
strength in their weakness and courage in their dejection. "Where 
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.'" Where the Spirit of 
our God takes up his abode, there slavery ends; the slavery of cor- 
rupt thoughts, of impure desires, of unhallowed passions, of un- 
godly deeds. The mind becomes enlightened, and the heart re- 
formed. Sinners have struck the flag of rebellion, and hoisted the 
banner of the cross. They loiter no longer in the camp of the 
enemy. They swell the ranks, and gather around the tent of the 
Friend and the Saviour of their souls. 

Let us analyze this matter. u Where the Spirit of the Lord is. 
there is liberty," because its possessors have been born again, born 
anew in the sacred soil of freedom. And to be born again implies 
something more than simple conformity to established rites and 
usages. By the outward application of water, the skin may be- 
come white as the bolted snow. But what avails it, if the heart 
continues black as jet ? What avails a deluge of waters, if when 
they pass away, rank and noxious weeds shoot up to choke all 
ether verdure, and rifle the husbandman of his promised harvest. 
God forbid, that I should breathe a sentiment adverse to a single 
institution of the gospel of Christ. I rather honour them all. Re- 
ligiously do I honour holy baptism. I believe it identified with, if 
not essential to, the character of the Christian, desirous, as our 
Saviour was, of fulfilling all righteousness. But is it credible, that 
the sprinkling of a few drops of water, or the immersion of the 
whole body in the purest and most limpid stream? Is it credible, 
that cither of these constitute the sole expedient requisite to recov- 
er the lost Image of God, and exist redeemed by his grace, and 
sanctified by his Spirit? 



261 



Men there are, whose loud contentions about the mode, whose 
wonderful tenacity about quantity and quality, indicate as if 
special virtue was to be attributed to these merely incidental 
circumstances. But I would as soon think of calculating a man's 
piety by the dimensions of his body; of associating the idea of 
sinfulness with the short, and of righteousness with the tall in 
stature. It would not be more absurd. It could not be more pre- 
posterous. Neither sprinkling nor immersion change the heart. 
They may be performed in infancy or in manhood, and that heart- 
may nevertheless wax worse and worse, in both the highway and 
the by-way of sin. It is to the adult, of no virtue to be baptized, 
unless he is buried with Christ, by baptism, to the entire conquest 
of the whole body of sin. Do this, and the external washing may 
have been slight or profuse, early or late ; it matters not. The 
great desideratum is to be conformed in our inward parts to the im- 
age of Him, that hath created us. 

Nor is Christian liberty, or the state of being born again, to be 
confounded with noisy rant and verbal declamation upon the subject 
of religion. Have ye never read, that many, who rejected our di- 
vine Redeemer in the days of his flesh, arrogated to themselves 
the praise of unrivalled sanctity? Have ye never read of their 
unbounded zeal and devotion, of the tithes they paid and the pray- 
ers they offered, of the proselytes they gained and the stigmas they 
cast upon the true servants of God? They even denounced the 
conduct of the immaculate Jesus himself. They charged him with 
being the companion of harlots, the friend of publicans and sinners; 
with being addicted to wine and fond of luxurious living. But what 
was the testimony borne against them by this inquisitor of the 
secrets of the heart f "O generation of vipers, how can ye, being 
evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the 
mouth speaketh." 

And are we compelled to read, in order to become conversant 
with persons of their description? Have we never seen or heard 
of them distributed in various quarters of our country, equally au- 
dacious, equally intolerant, equally disposed to denounce and re- 
probate the members of other communions, to question their prin- 
ciples and brand their piety? Alas, Brethren, the final steps of 
bigotry and intolerance are yet to be trodden. It is to be feared, 
that it will be long, very long, before their last vestige will be ob- 



262 



litem ted from an insulted soil. Were you to judge of some men' 
by their looks, you would think that angels had assumed the human 
shape and form. But judge them by their words and actions, and 
there is a want of charity, a bitterness of temper, an exuberance 
of passion, a deficiency of good works, that unitedly force upon us 
the conviction of their being destitute of the vital spark of reno- 
vation, of their being ignorant of God's righteousness, and that, 
going about to establish their own righteousness, they have still to 
submit themselves to the righteousness, which is of God, by faith. 

No better is the Christian liberty or spiritual regeneration of 
those, whose religion partakes of that peculiar quality of the ocean, 
the ebb and flow of its waters: Who come forward in the full tide of 
successful experiment, and anon retire only to expose, the more pal- 
pably, a wide spreading strand of mud and pollution : Who one mo- 
ment withdraw themselves from the world, with the avowed purpose 
of entering into the closest communion with their God, and the next 
return from their devotions to commit iniquity with a greediness set 
to its edge and sharpened by their recent abstraction : Who upon 
the holy Sabbath exclaim, This is the Lord's day! This is the 
day that the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it! 
While on every other day, they discover themselves to be so 
thoroughly engrossed with temporal concerns, as effectually to ex- 
clude all serious thoughts, and all devout affections from the mind : 
Who have even the ingenious faculty of dividing the Sabbath, as did 
the Romans some of their festival days, making the one part holy, 
and the other profane; the morning a suitable time to worship God, 
and the evening to find their own pleasure; the morning to confess 
their sins, and the evening to furnish themselves with the founda- 
tion for a subsequent confession ; the morning to make their peace 
with God, and the evening to break it; the morning to be solemn 
and devout, thoughtful and humble, the evening gay and inconsid- 
erate, idly perambulating the streets or reposing at home upon the 
couch of languid ease. 

Strange inconsistency ! Marvellous contrivance to serve two mas- 
ters! Were it thus with individuals compelled to earn their diurnal 
sustenance with the sweat of their brows, we should be very prompt 
in charging them with indolence and folly, to suspect them of vice, 
in some one or more of its degrading forms. And is the service of 
our Maker less valuable, less imperative than our own? Is it no- 



26*8* 

thing to squander away the hours expressly commanded to be kept 
holy, and at the same time a most scandalous and unpardonable 
offence to neglect the incumbent avocations of life ? Not such will 
be the decision of the Most High, at the great day of account. Feign- 
ed excuses, disingenuous though plausible arguments, will then 
weigh lighter than a feather in the scales of retributive justice. 
They, who now think themselves Christians, liberated from the 
thraldom of sin, because they pay some outward deference to the 
externals of religion ; and the renewal of whose minds is limited to 
occasional acts of homage and devotion, will then have ample cause 
to regret the time past of their lives. In eternity, things are not done 
by fractions or by halves, whether the mansions of misery or of 
happiness are concerned. 

So also in relation to this world, a more fatal errourdoes not pre- 
vail, than that, which supposes there is a time to be spiritual, and a 
time to be worldly; a time when we must surrender all our powers 
and faculties to the exclusive business of religion, and a time when 
we may dismiss all thoughts of our Creator from the mind, living 
and acting as though he had abdicated his throne, and suspended 
for a season the course of his providence ; as though he had relin- 
quished his authority and power to exact obedience, and reign su- 
preme in the affections of the children of men. Wretched, truly 
wretched and fallacious reasoning! How astonishing, that persons 
bearing his image and professing to wear the livery of his Son should 
be thus egregiously deceived! It belongs to the casuistry of this 
world, and may now blind the eyes and indurate the consciences 
of multitudes; but, at no distant period, " the light of the wicked 
shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine, The light 
shall be dark in his tabernacle, and his candle shall be put out with 
him." Where the Spirit of the Lord actually resides, there must 
be visible, at all times and all seasons, the genuine effect of regene- 
ration. It must be seen in the cultivation of every right, and the 
abandonment of every false way, or it will assuredly be counted 
worthless and unprofitable, at that solemn hour, when to have been 
truly redeemed and sanctified, during the term of our mortal pil- 
grimage, will alone ensure a favourable reception from our final 
judge. 

Yes, Brethren, the liberty of the Christian, the birthright he enjoys, 
admits not the idea of his wantonly grieving the Holy Spirit of God. 



2t>4 



whereby it was alone effected, and himself sealed unto the day of 
redemption. To understand its real import, you are to remember, 
that a natural birth is obviously the commencement of our exis- 
tence. We have not the remotest conception of a prior state of be- 
ing. If it ever transpired, we can at least recall none of its features, 
by the aid of the most retentive memory. So likewise in that birth 
of the soul, brought about by the renovating influence of the Spirit 
of our God ; every subject of its power acknowledges, that he had 
no spiritual life in all previous time. Ask him of his convictions, 
of his sorrow and mourning for sin, and he invariably testifies to his 
having been an impenitent sinner. Ask him, if his disease was 
thorough and mortal, he will tell you, that u the whole head was 
sick, and the whole heart faint." Ask him, if he was in all particu- 
lars a stranger to holiness, he will answer, that it would be a waste 
of time, a hopeless iask, were he to endeavour to select, from the 
moral perversion of his soul, one single act, that, viewed in all its 
relations, would be calculated to produce unmingled emotions of 
pleasure and self-approbation. 

No, no, the process of regeneration, the process of being born 
again, is precisely what the words indicate. It collects together all 
the phenomena, that would attend a new nativity ; or perhaps, if you 
can figure to yourselves the condition of a soul, as completely be- 
reft of life as is the body of some deceased relative; it is the resur- 
rection of that soul, from the dead, clothed with new garments, new 
affections, new desires, new powers, habits, and susceptibilities. 
Look at it enclosed, as it was, within a living tomb, and it was dead 
in trespasses and sins, dead to the purity of holiness, to the perfec- 
tions of the Deity, to the higher duties and accountabilities of a sen- 
tient being. But no sooner has this change been wrought, than it 
becomes alive to God, through Christ. The sinner sins no more, 
lest a worse thing should come unto him, and because he has lost 
all relish for the mere gratification of his sensual appetites. 

I do not mean, that his natural taste is gone; that allowed plea- 
sures have either lost their savour or their value. But his affec- 
tions were once riveted to the earth, they are now fastened to the 
skies. His passions were encouraged to usurp the mastery over 
reason, they are now made subservient to the far nobler law of the 
mind. His whole conduct was utterly unworthy of a being hereaf- 
ter r 1 39tined to associate with the holy angels, it is now regulated by 



265 



the maxims of purity, he has contracted a love for the things, which 
make for God and his Christ. Not a day passed over his head, in 
which he did not to a greater or less degree repulse and grieve the 
Holy Spirit ; he is now intent upon cherishing the good counsels and 
gracious influences of this Comforter sent from on high ; he is trans- 
formed by the renewing of his mind, and earnestly endeavours to 
prove, by his actions, what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect 
will of God. 

Let us call to mind a few of the instances most likely to be ob- 
served in the altered principles, habits, and inclinations of the sin- 
ner. To survey him in the depravity of his nature, make all the 
allowances that you please, is to survey an intelligent creature for- 
ever doting on a world, that for him begins to-day, and closes to- 
morrow. No one ignorant of eternity could for a moment suspect, 
that he had the faintest perception of another and a better life; so 
fully is he prepared, for the present, for its riches, its honours, its 
pleasures; so fully is he prepared to sacrifice every moral, every 
virtuous, every religious sentiment. Circumstances indeed vary 
the object of pursuit. It is now one thing, now another, now a third, 
that possesses unrivalled attractions in his eyes. It is either wealth 
or power, glory or amusement, science or literature, and still, while 
the fascination prevails, all other considerations appear to be effec- 
tually excluded, or only canvassed, as so many incentives to re- 
doubled exertion. He must obtain the prize in view, and to ensure 
it, no toil is deemed too arduous, no early impressions too sacred to 
be effaced. In this contest, principles often prove a feeble barrier 
to the aspirant for temporal distinction. As means multiply upon 
means, he hesitates not to use them, through any delicacy of moral 
feeling, or the dread of sin. As guilt accumulates upon guilt, he re- 
laxes rein after rein ; his impetuous, headlong career is checked by 
no voice of conscience, no fears of hell, no hopes of heaven. 

But behold this sinner under a different aspect. Behold him, af- 
ter his eyes have been opened, after his heart has been softened, 
after the terrors of the law have sunk deep into his soul, after re- 
peated prayers to heaven have been answered by the effectual ope- 
rations of converting grace, after he has become penitent, and 
faithful, and obedient. Behold him then, and you will observe in 
all instances of genuine conversion, that "Where the Spirit of the 
JiOrd is. there is liberty liberty from the shackles of a servitude 

2 J, 



2m 



worse than despot ever forged, or galley-slave endured. Old things? 
have passed away, and in passing away, they have carried with 
them actions and pursuits, he once vainly thought the highest sour- 
ces of temporal felicity. All things have become new, and in be- 
coming new, they have convinced him, how truly inestimable and 
sublime are the charms of religion, the paths of holiness, the daily 
intercourse subsisting between the creature and his great Creator, 
Has he lived the merest votary of pleasure? His chief pleasure 
now consists in contemplating the f perfections of the Most High,, 
in adoring him for his matchless exhibitions of love and mercy to 
fallen man, in praising him for the riches of his grace, in having 
provided mansions of everlasting glory for the pure in heart. Has 
he constantly dipped in volumes, where, amid a few sparkling gems r 
is collected a profusion of the vilest dross ? He has been taught the 
priceless value of thp volume of inspiration. He prefers it, as a 
Vein of gold is preferred to a mine of lead, as a fountain of pure 
water to the stagnant moat and fetid pool. Has he leagued with 
vice in its grosser forms, and ventured where so many of the young 
resort to breathe the atmosphere, and imbibe the infection of death 
eternal? He has learnt to humble himself in the house of his God, 
to bend his knees in worship and his soul in prayer, to anticipate 
with joy and listen with rapture to those words of heavenly grace 3 
which reveal the promises and predict the fruitions of life eternal. 
Has he indulged malevolent passions and sought for vengeance,, 
where blood is the only liquid, which can satiate the thirst of mis- 
called chivalry 9 He has found it far better to copy the example of 
Christ, always reviled and yet no reviler, always persecuted and 
yet committing himself to Him, that judgeth righteously. Has he 
been callous to the sufferings of humanity, turning away his face as 
the poor man pleaded for a trifle to relieve the urgency of his wants.,, 
and prolong a wretched life? He has acquired a tender and affec- 
tionate sympathy for the distresses of his fellow beings. He can no 
longer refuse to alleviate their sorrows, and contribute freely and 
bountifully to their aid. Has he assisted to brand the innocent with 
reproach, to hew down their reputation with the weapons of detrac- 
tion, and with true Jesuitical cunning charge . them with crimes for 
the nefarious purpose of concealing his own enormities? He ha» 
been instructed to cherish a more righteous and magnanimous spir- 
it, to endure with patience even the malice of the sinner, to expostu- 



267 



late with him gently and kindly, to afford him no just ground of 
offence, and to extenuate rather than aggravate the measure of his 
guilt. Has he been addicted to licentious language? Have oaths, 
and imprecations, and blasphemies, polluted his breath, and mangled 
the tongue, that was designed to praise, and not to outrage the glory 
of God? He has been made to feel, that even for " every idle word 
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of 
judgment For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy 
words thou shalt be condemned." He has set a watch upon his 
lips, and fastened a bridle upon his tongue. For cursing and swear- 
ing he has substituted the voice of prayer, and perhaps resounded 
the songs of Zion. Has he drained the intoxicating bowl, and ex- 
ulted in the table of an epicure? He has discovered that there is 
richer wine and more delicious food.- He has banqueted at that far 
nobler board, which it cost the life of Christ to spread, and where, 
in the exercise of a true and lively faith, his redeeming blood is 
drank, and his crucified body broken and consumed. Has he in fine 
revelled in vices outnumbering the stars of heaven, the leaves of 
autumn, the sands upon the sea shore ? Has he pursued them with 
thoughtless levity, or more inveterate animosity to the divine law? 
He has learnt to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour. He 
has exchanged them for the mild and peaceful virtues of the Chris - 
tian faith. He has resolved to " walk worthy of the Lord unto all 
pleasing, being fruitful in every good work." He has determined; 
as the height of his ambition, to "grow in grace, and in the know- 
ledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.'" 

Yes, Brethren, such is the change, such are the triumphs of the 
renovated Christian. " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is 
liberty." Not the liberty of "continuing in sin, that grace may 
abound :" Not the liberty of flying in the face of heaven, and defy- 
ing the power, that made him, by resisting his authority, and tramp- 
ling upon his laws: But the liberty, which results from being vic- 
toriously born again, and transformed into a new creature in Christ 
Jesus. Give me this liberty, exclaims the full-hearted Christian, 
and I will not use it "for a cloak of maliciousness." I shall be free 
indeed; free from wrath and anger, from strife and contention; free 
from the pleasing snares of vice ; free from the tyranny of evil habits ; 
free from that slavery of the body and the soul, which yields to no 
*aher charter or form of emancipation, which must else consign me 



268 



to the regions of despair, and prove lasting and unchangeable as 
eternity itself. 

Permit me then to inquire : Have I succeeded in giving you a 
faithful epitome of the true import and character of Christian liberty ? 
Let it be the first wish of your hearts to reduce it to your personal 
possession. Fight the good fight of faith, and you will have it. 
Contend, manfully contend, against the world, the flesh, and the 
devil, and the victory must be yours. I cannot too often remind you, 
that "the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound 
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : So 
is every one that is born of the Spirit." Its operations are silent 
and invisible. They are inscrutable. They are known and com- 
prehended by the divine Omniscience alone. 

But what of this? It does not detract from the health and vigour 
of the peasant, that he is incapable of analyzing the process of di- 
gestion, and of tracing his food through the numerous vessels, which 
convey its nutricious properties to every part of his sturdy frame. 
It does not render him the less agile or robust, the less adroit in the 
management of his muscles, or pre-eminent in athletick feats. Nor 
is it necessary to the work of regeneration, that it should be better 
understood, or more precisely marked. You have only persever-t 
ingly to use the means, all plainly revealed in the sacred volume : 
you have only perseveringly to pray, that they may be made effec- 
tual in the manner God hath ordained, and you can no more fail of 
success, than you can fail of being clean after repeated ablutions; 
you can, in the course of time, no more mistake the indwelling in- 
fluences of the Spirit, no more mistake the liberty with which Christ 
shall make you free, than you can the evidence which now impels 
you to the belief of your corporeal and intellectual existence. The 
unconverted may, but the converted seldom or never. They are too 
thoroughly changed; too widely variant from what they were be- 
fore. The idiosyncrasy, if I may be allowed the word, following 
in the train of their religion, shines out apparent as the sun in the 
heavens. Their domestick relations, their intercourse with society, 
are sustained under happier auspices and after a more excellent way. 
They are vigilant, where they were careless; conscientious, where 
they were presumptuous; holy, where they were sinful; obedient, 
where they were disobedient. If Jesus commands, they prepare 
themselves according to his will; if to repent , they repent ; to be* 



269 



iieve, they believe; to pray, they pray; to receive his sacraments, 
they receive ; and so, throughout all the duties of the divine life, 
they follow him, as implicitly as the shepherd is followed by the 
sheep. There are no excuses, no delays, no turning aside to the 
right hand or to the left. Such liberty as this, they ask not from the 
Captain of their salvation. It is neither desired nor felt. His pro- 
mises are all yea and amen, and so are his ordinances. In diem 
they live, and in them, hard by the horns of the altar, they die. Tnere 
is consequently to the sincerely faithful and holy, no room for mis- 
take. So long as they " continue in the faith grounded and settled ;" 
it is morally impossible, that they should be " moved away from the 
hope of the gospel;" that they should not enjoy "the full assurance 
of hope." 

By these rules therefore, Brethren, judge yourselves, and you 
will soon discern where your heart, with your treasure is. If in a 
state Of bondage to sin, ye will be ashamed to confess Christ before 
men; ye will think more of their opinions and their sayings, than 
ye will of his present love or of his future frowns. Though he 
cease not to whisper to your consciences, " Marvel not that I said 
unto thee, ye must be born again;" ye will deny the necessity, and 
produce the multitude, as your example and authority. But if ye 
can lay your hand upon your heart, and feelingly pronounce it to 
be the place, " where the Spirit of the Lord is ;" then do ye expe- 
rience the liberty of the text, the liberty of the Sons of God, Ye 
will be wise as serpents, and yet harmless as doves; intrepid as a 
lion, and yet gentle as a lamb. Ye will not tamper with flesh and 
blood, nor be reduced to the melancholy strait of palliating your 
avoidance of duties. Ye will not be alarmed for yourselves, that 
the avenue to heaven, with its everlasting doors, is reported to be 
barred against all, who are not "born of water and of the Spirit;" 
against all, who "eat not the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink 
his blood." But commisserating the errours, and sighing for the 
, destiny of others, ye will have the testimony of a good conscience, 
that your liberty has not been abused. "Ye will have your fruit 
unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." The happiness of the 
sinner, miserable and unsatisfying as it is, is restricted to the scene 
before him; but your happiness will survive, and augment where it 
survives. The righteous soul but leaves a prison, when it leaves 
this mortal coil. It is here, as to its loftier flights, incarcerated in 



210 



the dungeon of the flesh. It is in heaven alone, that its liberty car* 
be perfect and complete. It is there, that, in the more exalted 
sense, the Spirit of the Lord resides. It is there, that, entirely 
free from pain and sin, from sorrow and sighing, from disease and 
death, ye will have Christ for your portion, and the blissful man- 
sions, he hath prepared, for your inheritance forever and forever. 



SERMON XXII. 

Romans xiv. 22. 

Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he 

alloweth. 

THIS is one of those passages of the holy scriptures, which 
receives at once the spontaneous assent of the mind. It contains 
a proposition, that no matter in what region born or in what cli- 
mate bred, no one can have the hardihood and temerity to deny. 
Give me the testimony of my conscience, that what I have done, 
what I am now doing is right, consistent with morality, and con- 
formable to the divine will; give me this, and I need not envy the 
high and lofty ones of the earth, the splendour of their fortunes, 
the dignity of their rank, the gorgeousness of their equipments, or 
the glory of their power. My soul shall still dwell at ease. It 
may look up at the innocent face of heaven without a blush, and 
read, in the azure softness of a summer's sky,a striking resemblance 
of its own calm and undisturbed repose. 

But are there clouds and darkness, lurid fires and more than 
Cimmerian gloom, to brood over the prostrate world, and impart to 
it a noisome medley of "horrid shapes, and shrieks, and sights un- 
holy?" So does a guilty conscience shake with terrors and startle 
even at the falling of a leaf. "The wicked flee when no man 
pursueth/' "The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot 
rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt." If they are ever happy. 



271 



it must be, when they are bereft of thought. Left to their own r& 
flection, "There is no peace saith my God, to the wicked." He 
alone is " happy whose heart is pure, whose hands are clean, 
; *that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." 

Let us collect our ideas, and trace out the causes. Is it no! 
owing in a great degree to the intrinsick loveliness of virtue, te 
the sentiment of self-approbation it is sure to produce? Who ever 
performed a good deed only to weep over the folly and infatuation 
of his conduct? Suppose it were an act of charity, a beggar re- 
lieved, a widow succoured, an injured orphan redressed. Did either 
of these gratuities ever lay the foundation of future sorrow and 
repentance? You may find unworthy objects, and, discovering 
this, may regret the imposition played off upon your feelings, and 
the unprofitable nature of the demand responded from your purse, 
But never can the really benevolent man be harassed with such 
reflections as these, I have fed the hungry, and clothed the naked, 
1 have listened to the voice of humanity. I have parted my gar- 
ments, and denied not my morsel to the poor. My conscience bears 
witness against me, that in this I have sorely offended thee, O God j 
have mercy upon me, and let not this my wickedness shut up thy 
loving kindness in everlasting displeasure. Were we to use such 
language, we should be regarded as maniacs. Were others to use 
it, our comity would be severely taxed to refrain from a smile. We 
should pronounce them fit candidates for Bedlam. Among all the 
strange anomalies of our nature, I have never known a good action, 
performed in a good spirit, rise up in judgment against the per- 
former, and condemn him. He never says, pursed be my prodi- 
gality, I have protected the fatherless and caused the widow's heart 
to sing for joy. Cursed be my integrity, I have kept my word, and 
discharged my honest debts. Cursed, supremely cursed, be my 
devotion, I have worshipped God in the spirit and in the understand- 
ing; I have loved him for the perfection of his attributes, and adored 
him for the exuberance of his mercy. O why was I such a fool, so 
ideotick and insane? "Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer 
thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth/' No, Brethren, he 
never says thus. I have never heard him, nor have you. Give me 
then, I insist, " the testimony of my conscience, that in simplicity 
und godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of 
<^od ? I have had my conversation in the world;" Give me this, and 



272 



1 am as certain of being happy, internally happy, as God is happy 
Briers and thorns grow every where else; but in a good conscience 
there is no sting. 

I find myself also obliged to refer to the opposite qualities of sin„ 
No man can allow it, without condemning himself. It is the order 
of nature, as to the body. My bones exclaims the waning sensual* 
ist, are full of the iniquities of my youth. These limbs are not 
paralyzed by old age. So far as years are concerned, I could yet 
run with the swift, and vie with the strong* And do you ask the 
cause of present infirmity, of chronick pains and debilitated nerves ? 
I am forced to attribute it to early indulgence. Happiness keeps 
aloof, it flies from me, because I would not, after the manner of Paul, 
"keep under my body, and bring it into subjection."" Because I 
had the folly to draw upon its resources faster than the hardiest 
system would authorize, therefore am I now suffering the conse- 
quences of premature decay. 

It is the order of nature, as to the mind. We know not its com- 
ponent parts, if indeed it has any parts. But still there is an organ 
for bitter reflection, and an outlet for sighing and tears. Show me 
the gayest sinner, put him upon the stand as a witness in his own 
cause. Let him rehearse his pleasures and testify of his joys, 
They may sparkle for the time. In the recital, his eye may be 
lighted up, and his countenance flushed. But let me tell you, he is 
not the man to endure the severity of a cross-examination. You 
must not ask him, if his pillow is always soft; if his dreams are 
always pleasant ; if his solitude is never disturbed by a pang. It 
Would soon melt away the snowy texture of his felicity. It would 
prove it counterfeit and spurious, or himself a perjured man. By the 
divine appointment, "evil pursueth sinners/ 5 It fastens upon the 
mind. It there inflicts a series of wounds, which no human inge 
nuity can heal, none of the specificks of this world completely cure. 
At best, they ever leave a scar behind, or utterly failing, the very 
soul itself is constrained to bleed at every pore. 

Again, Brethren, in relation to happiness, life is to be regarded in 
the aggregate, and not in divided portions. I remember, that when 
the Indian monarch demanded of Solon, whom he thought the 
happiest of men, the sage at once referred to the dead, and not to 
the living. And why? He knew nothing of the scriptures. Those 
of the new testament were then unwritten. But still his answer 



£73 



Was comprised in the well known proverb, " Boast not thyself of 
to-morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.'" 
And Croesus , though at the time he spurned the cautious wisdom 
and forecast of the philosopher, from whom he was expecting a 
personal compliment, was afterwards but too well convinced of his 
almost inspired sagacity. So it is with the sinner, and his pretend- 
ed happiness. He may look ever so fresh and fair, so full of hope 
and of glee, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, 
in which he shall find no pleasure. But let them arrive, and the 
frost of spiritual death is upon him. Whether young or old, let 
weeping friends attest, that his last hour approaches, and I want no 
surer evidence of the misery that infests his paths. He cannot 
ealmly cope with the monarch of the tombs. He cannot serenely 
gaze upon his hard features, or gladly comply with his imperative 
summons. If he yields, it is because he is forced to yield. It is 
not voluntarily. It is not with a light heart, a free spirit, and a re- 
joicing hope. It is often with keen remorse, and the most terrible 
presentiments. I have seen it myself. I have conversed with many, 
who have been brought to believe in Christianity, from being fre- 
quently called to witness the indescribable agony of the wicked at 
the door of death, contrasted with the invariable composure, resig- 
nation, and even joy of the righteous. 

And can he be justly termed a happy man, whose life is such as 
to produce fear and trembling when he comes to die? It would be 
the grossest perversion of the epithet. Our life must be estimated 
from the cradle to the tomb, before it can be properly applied. What- 
ever apparent felicity may precede the last extremity, we have the 
touchstone then, and as we endure it, so must our epitaph be writ- 
ten. Vice ever shrinks from the trial. Virtue and religion alone 
triumph there. He alone is purely happy, whose heart condemns 
him not when time recedes, and eternity is about to dawn. 

Even in the days of health and strength, the man is not happy, 
whom a sense of ingratitude compels to avoid the eye of his bene- 
factor; whom a knowledge of positive injuries inflicted causes to 
turn away from the hapless victims of his rapacity, his cruelty, his 
determination to forget right and pursue wrong; whom a conscious- 
ness of ill desert, of bad fame, of general execration, haunts in all 
the intercourse of life, with every man's hand lifted against him, and 
no voice to sooth, console, and sympathize, Whereas he, who acts 

9M 



274 



by the golden rule of the text, fears no evil, and is molested by no, 
just reproach. He can meet his neighbour without the averted 
face, the downcast eye, the faltering tongue, the trembling hand. 
Armed with the panoply of a good conscience, he can meet the 
world, nor dread its scrutiny, nor shudder lest he should be put to 
shame and confusion of face. Better than all this, he can meet his 
God, not glorying in himself, not relying upon his personal merits: 
but still firmly persuaded of the divine mercy and benevolence; 
firmly persuaded that, for the sake of Christ, his humble heart and 
renovated spirit, his faithful obedience and holy conversation, will 
be accepted in love, and rewarded in glory. And nothing more is 
requisite to make him happy. He has renounced every false way* 
He has embraced the good part which Mary chose. He has for- 
borne to do that which his conscience enlightened by the gospel 
would not allow, and therefore he looks backward and forward with 
pleasure; backward to a life devoted to the service of his Maker; 
forward to an eternity to be spent in songs of praise and scenes of 

Such then are the causes, succinctly and of course partially 
adverted to, such the causes for the saying, which is written, " Hap- 
py is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he al- 
lowed!." The method to be adopted, in order that we may be jus- 
tified in applying it to ourselves, may be more difficult to describe, 
I will embark in the attempt, and at the same time enjoin upon 
every hearer to be equally disposed to learn and to practise what he 
learns. 

Consideration is the first lesson it teaches. We usually act with- 
out it; without troubling ourselves in morals or in religion to pause, 
to think, to consider our ways, And strange to say, this very incon- 
sideration is often made the apology for our errours. We sin 
against the strongest light and the brightest evidence. But then 
we did not mean to sin. We had not really much time to reflect 
about it. In great haste, we did so and so, wrong we admit, and 
yet for these reasons no doubt very excusable in the eye of God. 
Bat O ye simple ones, crieth wisdom "uttering her voice in the 
streets," " How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity ?" If 
I understand any thing of the bible, it is not even the sincerit) r , 
with which a man does that which is wrong, thinking it to be right, 
that shail excuse him wheu he comes to appear in the presence of 



275 



God, " I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things 
contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth," was the language of 
Paul speaking of himself as Saul of Tarsus. But as an Apostle, 
he declares in reference to this very conduct, and notwithstanding 
the then state of his mind, that he was "a blasphemer, a persecutor 
and injurious.'" He never attempted to justify himself, by plead- 
ing either ignorance or sincerity in extenuation of his crimes. He 
rather freely condemned them. He freely pronounced himself 
guilty, though he "obtained mercy, because he did it ignorantly in 
unbelief." 

And can you think, he would have done otherwise, if, when fully 
apprized of a more perfect way, he had allowed himself to blas= 
phsme, to persecute, to become injurious from the want of reflection'? 
Nothing could be more absurd. God commands us to reflect. For 
what else, did he give us minds endowed with the capacity? For 
what else, doctrines and precepts requiring to be canvassed in order 
to be thoroughly understood? The answer is obvious. It demol- 
ishes the whole fabrick of this vain, this idle, this presumptuous 
plea. He gave us these things, that we might ponder our paths; 
that we might rise above the level of the brutes, and examine the 
nature and the consequences of every action, before we permitted it 
to transpire. A contrary doctrine would hallow the vilest habits. 
For as has been shrewdly observed, " man is a bundle of habits," 
acting for the most part, as he has acted before. Swearing, for 
instance, because he has learned to swear. Slandering, lying, de- 
frauding, and so on, because through use, they have become incor- 
porated with the genius of his whole spirit, soul, and body. But 
will arguments derived from such a source palliate the guilt of the 
robber or the murderer? I have not so learned the jurisprudence 
of our country; nor must you so learn the pure and holy com- 
mandments of God. You must rather learn to think wisely and 
well, to weigh each motive by which you are influenced, and form- 
ing your habits after mature deliberation to become attached to 
those only, that are virtuous; so attached, that it would not be less 
difficult to change them, than it would be to turn the rapid stream s 
or bend the knotted oak. 

Nor to guide you in your course of conduct, to make you truly 
happy in your pursuits, can you too frequently search the scriptures. 
I think but poorly of the moral sense, that is not founded and form- 



2T6 



ed upon them. It may do for the heathen, confined as they are to 
the natural law, written upon the fleshly tables of their hearts, by 
the unseen finger of God. But for the Christian: What faith can 
he have in that blighted moral sense, which taught the Spartan, it 
was a virtue to steal, and the Messenian, the height of piety to 
sacrifice his daughter to appease the wrath of Apollo; which still 
instructs the new-made widow of the East to give her body to be 
burned, and her own child to light the funeral pyre? Before I can 
believe, that we want no better rule, than a natural conscience, to 
direct us in the way we should go, some higher testimony is requi- 
site than these flag-rant violations of the Christian maxims of right 
and wrong. 

And even then, what are we to do in all those cases, where 
moral guilt or innocence is referrible to the divine law alone? The 
sin of Adam consisted in mere disobedience. The fruit, he pluck- 
ed and ate, was as harmless in itself, as any that is reared in our 
gardens. It was only because it was forbidden, that he offended 
and fell. So of many of the duties enjoined in the scriptures 
Who can show, that they have any other binding force, than what 
is given them by the counsel and determination of God? To mur- 
der, if it had not been prohibited, you might object, that one man's 
life is as dear as another's. To theft, that its authorized permis- 
sion would impair the only principles upon which society can be 
held together. But what crime would there be in not praying to 
God, in not believing in Jesus, in not loving your enemies, in not 
submitting to baptism, in not partaking of the bread and wine in 
remembrance of the death and sacrifice of Christ, until his con> 
ing again? What crime would there or could there be in these 
omissions, provided the observances themselves had not been ex- 
pressly commanded? I deny, that in such case there would have 
been any, the slightest guilt; none that could have inflicted a wound 
upon our moral susceptibility; none that could have drawn down 
upon our heads the displeasure of a God, whose will was unknown, 
whose ways were past finding out. And hence the necessity in 
these, and similar particulars, of having our understanding inform- 
ed, and our conscience enlightened. Natural means will not avail, 
I read no such requirements in the heaven above, or in the earth 
beneath. To discover them, the bible itself must be rea'd; and 
being read, in order to be truly happy, we must not ask for higher 



277 



authority; we must not be obliged to condemn ourselves for their 
\:a-performance, for allowing ourselves to omit duties prescribed 
by the Almighty, and enforced by the most solemn sanctions. 

Cheerfulness in obedience is also an important characteristick of 
a o-ood conscience. I have no faith in observances, which are irk- 
some and galling to the observer. What pleasure can the galley- 
slave take in the oar to which he is chained? What merit has he in 
labours performed under the excitement of lash and stripe? And so 
with the professed Christian. Does he inwardly loathe his profes- 
sion ? Having embraced it in the moment of alarm, does he contin- 
ue it through servile fear ? I would not give a straw for his con- 
science. I consider the dissembling compact between his body and 
soul, no better than the compounding of felony in the criminal law. 
It is the sacrifice of his passions on the altar of form and show. It 
is bargaining for heaven, as a man bargains for liberty, by paying 
the price he would gladly retain. Bat the true Christian, who alone 
possesses the right to appropriate to himself the heart-cheering 
declaration of the text, the true Christian loves religion for reli- 
gion's sake. He loves the whole round of its duties. He loves 
them for their purity, for their holiness, for their conformity to 
truth and reason, for the present peace they bring, as well as the 
future hopes they inspire. He puts me in mind of that faithful dove 
of Noah, who flew to execute his master's will; of that dutiful and 
affectionate child, who has only to divine a parent's wishes in order 
to execute them; last and best, of that holy Jesus, whose meat it 
was to do the will of God. On such grounds, and with such views, 
he may well be happy. He has no occasion to condemn himself 
for pretending to be what he is not; for wearing a mask, to conceal 
from the world the hidden mystery of guilt. But his soul is equally 
transparent with his actions. He can sing with grace and melody 
in his heart to the Lord. He can cry out with truly Apostolick fer- 
vour, •'• God forbid, that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified fmto me, and I unto 
the world. *' 

Finally, Brethren, there is t and there must be, great tenderness of 
conscience with the Christian. Tenderness with regard to himself: 
He must be perfectly satisfied, that what he is about to perform is 
right, morally and intrinsically right, not merely in his own judg- 
ment; but in the judgment of God, A doubt will force him to pause 



27 S 



until that doubt be removed. If there be more than a doubt, if it 
grows into a conviction, not all the entreaties of friends, nor all the 
frowns of foes can cause him to violate the intimations of his own 
internal monitor. If he should happen to err in opinion, he will be 
sure not to err grossly in practice. If he should encounter the re- 
proaches of those he loves, he will at least spare himself the accu- 
sations of a wounded spirit. 

Tenderness moreover in relation to others: It is now too late to 
attempt an analysis of that statement about meats and drinks, which 
precedes the text. The Apostle sums up his argument with pecu- 
liar felicity, where he says, " It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to 
drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth or is made 
weak."" Whence we learn, that in things indifferent in our own 
estimation, and yet evil in the estimation of others, something is 
due to the prejudices, some little personal sacrifice to the weakness 
of friends, or if you please to their superstition. I will illustrate my 
meaning bv a familiar example. Suppose that a Christian should 
consider the amusement of a publick ball perfectly innocent and 
harmless ; that he could enjoy it, without impairing his piety, or 
cooling the ardour of his love for Christ. Others entertain a very 
different opinion. The\ assert, that it is attended with a waste of 
time, and a depravation of morals. And what under such circum- 
stances would be the advice of Paul ? Give it up. " For" a ball 
68 destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; Lut it 
is evil for that man who" daxces "with offence." What as a gen- 
eral rule would be the conduct of the sincere believer? He would 
listen to that advice. He would follow it. He would " follow after 
the things which make for peace, and things whereby one may 
c;dify another." And this I call a proper tenderness of conscience 
for the prejudices of others, if the opinion of Paul is to be relied 
upon, in giving his decision in a case strictly in point. It does not 
require, that I should cease to do what is positively good, because 
some enthusiast has taken it into his head, that it is positively bad. 
But what terrible calamity would befall Christians, and I might add 
the human race, if there were no balls? They could still pray as 
devoutly, and believe as sincerely, and obey as cheerfully, and love 
God as fervently, as they now do. I do not think, provided the 
amusement were universally admitted to be innocent, that its loss 
would abstract very materially from their happiness, and this I 



27$ 

know, that in the judgment of the Apostle, the most indifferent thing 
becomes evil to that man, who in its pursuit flies in the face of pub- 
lick religious opinion; who in this manner wantonly invades the 
scruples of those, for whom Christ died. 

On the whole, Brethren, this sermon is designed to prevail with 
you to covet earnestly the possession of the best companion, we can 
possibly enjoy in this transient life ; 1 mean a good conscience. If 
you know of any thing, belonging to our frail nature, better or more 
desirable j any thing better calculated to make your sleep refresh- 
ing, or your waking hours pass away with a higher relish ; any thing, 
that shall cause your lives to be more honourable, or your deaths 
more glorious, in God's name, embrace it ; fold it to your bosom, 
and wind it around your hearts. I am for the greatest good, be it 
where it may. I am for happiness here, and happiness hereafter. 
But if, upon diligent inquiry, you can discover no flaw, no errour, 
no hyperbole in that saying of the great Apostle, " Happy is he that 
condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth;*' why then, 
make it the subject of your thoughts, and the rule of your actions : 
Amid all the chances and changes of this mortal life, be it your 
chief, as it must be your most important, concern to preserve a 
conscience void of offence both towards God and man. It is more 
valuable than rubies. It is a more precious gem in the setting of the 
soul, than wealth can purchase, or monarchs wear. It will not 
lose, it will increase its brilliancy from being exposed to the attri- 
tions of time ; and when ki the heavens shall pass away with a great 
noise, and the e^irth shall melt with fervent heat," its lustre will not 
be dazzled or obscured by .the bright sunshine of eternity, Amets] 



280 



SERMON XXIII. 

acts xxvi. 28. 

Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. 

IN the moral properties of the mind, in the expression of 
their hopes and fears, mankind have been the same in every age. 
The same has been their love of ease, of happiness, of all that can 
satisfy the desires of the heart. Circumstances may vary the prin- 
cipal object of attraction, but a principal one there always is, for 
whose attainment the pulse beats high, and the bosom throbs, and 
body and soul co-operate with all their powers. I wish it was re- 
ligion, the divine religion of Christ. It can fill up the widest ex- 
panse of human hope. It can add new lustre to the brightest and 
disperse the shadows of the darkest day. It can pour the fullest tide 
of felicity into the various channels of this mortal life, and when 
life shall perceptibly ebb away, it can extract every pungent quali- 
ty from the sting of death. 

And yet, when religion possessed its most able advocate in the 
person of Paul ; when with a manly spirit and a commanding elo- 
quence, he vindicated it from the defamation of its enemies; when 
there was power vouchsafed him from on high to give unwonted en* 
ergy to the language of his lips, and the inspiration of his soul ; even 
then a Jewish king was heard to qualify the unexpected convictions, 
which began to fasten upon his mind. He should have come out 
openly and fearlessly. He should have humbled every sentiment 
of pride. He should have dismissed every shadow of doubt. He 
should have acknowledged himself instructed as a hearer, convinc- 
ed as a sinner, fully satisfied and resolved as a disciple of Christ. 
But mark ye the prejudice of the Jew, still lingering in his thoughts. 
Mark ye the slowness of his heart to believe, the cautiously equivo- 
cal terms in which he replied to St. Paul, u Almost thou persuadest 
me to be a Christian." 

Mark ye this. It may hold up a mirror to your consciences, 
Brethren, and that mirror may reflect a similitude, ye will one day 



281 



be very glad to disavow. Do you understand me? Have ye not 
time and again been sorely grieved by arrows lanched from the 
bow of the preacher? Have ye not felt the deeply searching pow- 
er of the Spirit in your souls, as ye have heard the Son of Man des- 
cribed, the divineness of his origin, the fervency of his love, the per- 
fection of his character, the wonders that he wrought to reconcile 
you to God, and enable you to lay hold on the exceedingly great 
and precious promises of the gospel? Have ye not felt, have ye 
not heard, all this? And feeling, hearing, have ye not trembled as 
sinners, as dying men, as candidates for immortal life or immortal 
death? Have ye not moreover, in the midst of this alarm, this trepi- 
dation, this sinking of the spirits before a God of consuming fire, 
have ye not mentally cried out with King Agrippa, in answer to 
the voice of instruction and entreaty, " Almost thou persuadest me 
to be a Christian?" Ye have, I know the nature of the human heart 
so well, that I can vouch for it, with the utmost confidence and de- 
cision. Upon this subject, there can be no mistake, no uncertainty. 
Instead of warmly professing to deny it, another and a very differ- 
ent feeling should prevail, the feeling of shame, and of self-reproach. 
For where do ye get that word, almost? It forms no part of the 
economy of grace. It enters not into the creed of the true follow- 
ers of Christ. So far from recognizing it, as proceeding from the 
Father of Lights, Paul answered King Agrippa and said, " I would 
to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were 
both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds." 

You perceive therefore, Brethren, that in this all important con- 
cern, there is to be no wavering, no irresolution of the mind. It 
must be prompt, decided, unequivocal. Almost will not do; we 
must be altogether persuaded to become Christians. The path of 
safety is the path of conviction, perfect and entire conviction. There 
grow the fruits of piety. All else is a drear and barren waste, 
without one flower of spring to cheer the eye, or one ripened product 
of the autumn to gratify the taste of man. Why then this indecis- 
ion, this lingering of the soul on the hither banks of Jordan? Light 
has dawned upon it. It shines with a brilliancy too pure to dazzle, 
and too clear to confound. Why then do we not wake out of sleep? 
It is high time. Why do we not leave our moral dungeon, and in- 
vest ourselves with the whole armour of light? There is no sun* 
shine equal to the sunshine of the gospel. 

2 N 



282 



I will tell you. I will begin at the foundation, and assert that iC 
is owing to the corruption of our nature. Fond, easy man thinks 
that he is very good and very innocent ; that he comes forth from 
his Maker's hands fair as the morning, and guileless as its dew. And 
so he does, if appearances alone are to be consulted. So do the 
young of animals the most ferocious and malignant. But in their 
ease, if there be any thing more than appearance, why do they not 
grow up mild as the lamb, and gentle as the dove? Why does net 
" the wolf dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the 
kid ; and the calf, and the young lion, and the fading together?" You 
will attribute it at once to nature, and not to education. There are 
animals so fierce, that they cannot be tamed, though you were to 
commence the trial at the most tender age ; and, in spite of ap- 
pearance, I ask no better proof of a radical malignity connected 
with the first breath they draw. 

It is precisely thus with our fallen humanity. It buds and it blos- 
soms well. I know not an object lovelier than an infant cradled in 
its mother's arms. It is a happy emblem of innocence; but after 
all, it is an emblem only. It is not a reality, a substance that will 
stand the test of experiment, the chemical test applied to it by the" 
hand of time. In other words, an infant in its progress to maturity 
invariably shows, that it was shapen in iniquity, and conceived in 
sin. By no pains, can we prevent the original taint in its nature 
from being rapidly disclosed. Every parent knows it, every human 
being, if he will but revert to the past, and trace up every evil 
thought and habit to the fountain head. They were developed be- 
fore he could comprehend what was right, and what was wrong. 
Our Saviour himself declares, that they proceed " out of the heart.' 1 
If this were not the source, you might find one individual at least, 
who from his youth up would be authorized to affirm, I have always- 
" washed mine hands in innocency." I have neither thought amiss, 
nor spoke amiss, nor done amiss. But no such thing: Save the 
man Christ Jesus, " all have sinned, and come short of the glory of 
God." We begin in ignorance. We continue in opposition to 
knowledge and the sense of duty. As the Apostle acknowledges of 
himself and his brethren, " When we were in the flesh, the motions 
of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring 
forth fruit unto death;" so it is with us. Disguise the matter as we 
please, here is the grand foundation of all our indisposition to era- 



283 



brace the principles, and exhibit the virtues of the Christian life ; 

• The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to 
the law of God, neither indeed can be." 

It is not meant, that there is a hatred against his majestick es- 
sence, or against those attributes, which have conspired to bring us 
into existence. But there is a hatred against his law, as decided an 
aversion to its provisions, as instinct ever manifested against what- 
ever is pernicious to health and happiness, amongst the lower orders 
of creation. Sin is pleasant to the eyes, though we have the evi- 
dence of experience, that it is bitter to the taste. There is no effort 
requisite to make us sinners. We are made before we are aware. 
While to be holy: How great must be the struggle! How wonderful 
the change! It is like facing the storm, or breasting the surges of 
the sea. And call you this acting in compliance with the voice and 
the dictates of nature? I cannot arrive at the same conclusion. If 
it were natively pure, and holy, and of good report; there would not 
always be some lusts to mortify, some lawless passions to subdue, 
some reason and forethought to be exercised, before we are found 
heartily consenting to the will of God. As ye would be Christians 
in reality, as ye would not be satisfied to be almost persuaded to be 
such: Dismiss ye therefore, Brethren, the carnal mind, with all its 
enmity to the divine law : Resolve, by the grace of God, to triumph 
over your natural corruption. Such is the infirmity, and the im- 
perfection of our race, that a remainder of the poison will always be 
present with you. But the Holy Spirit searcheth the deep things 
of man, and applying to him, ye shall have power vouchsafed to 
keep it under; to set to it bounds, which it cannot pass; to make 
you a new heart and a new spirit, that ye may not die eternally. 

Another cause, intimately connected with the preceding, and 
greatly controlling us in our opposition to the way of life, may be 
referred to our passionate attachment to this world. I find myself 
surrounded on every side by mere worldlings; by men and women, 
who never seem to reflect, that this state of trial will soon come to 
an end; that we shall soon be even as others, bereft of life and 
motion, shrouded in the land of silence, and crawled upon, by the 
very worm, we are now so prone to crush beneath our tread. In 
this particular, the experience and the fate of friends are quite lost 
upon us. We neither take note of time, of the gray hairs which 
begin to sprinkle our locks, nor do we take note of the dead ; of 



284 



those, who once thought as we are accustomed to think, and are now 
cold, and still, and silent, as we shall he. O death, when art thou 
destined to strike the blow upon others, which shall at the same 
time strike out all deadness and insensibility from the region of our 
hearts. Thy sithe is yet wet with the blood of the slain. Thou 
hast been mowing in a field, where the fairest and the tallest plants 
have been cropped by the vigour of thine arm, and the inveteracy 
of thy hate: The young and the beautiful, rich in virtue, glowing 
with all the ardour of conjugal affection, and exulting in a mother's 
feelings, and a mother's fondest hopes : The artist, skilled in the 
noble science of wresting the features of friends and relatives from 
thy withering touch, and yet more skilled in the happy talent of 
inspiring love for his benevolence, and esteem for his integrity: 
The scholar, in the pride of his genius, and the strength and vi- 
vacity of his mind; while he was yet sunning himself in the walks 
of literature; while he was yet gathering every flower, that could 
impart splendour to his diction; and availing himself of every re- 
source, that could ensure a loftier stretch, and communicate a more 
ethereal air to the towering flight of his eloquence. 

Yes, all these have recently fallen before thee, as grass doth fall 
before the mower, to be dried up and withered by the summer's 
heat. And still we take no warning. The world smiles as fair 
and inviting as before. It opens the brightest prospects to our 
eager gaze, and we cannot, we will not, bring ourselves to believe, 
that they are continually liable to be dashed out forever. Else I 
demand ; what is there in its boasted fruitions, that is worthy to be 
enjoyed at the expense of pure religion and undefiled before God 
and the Father? Nothing, absolutely nothing. It is a word of all 
others best adapted to convey a graphick delineation of the poverty 
of all things here below, compared with the fulness, the rich- 
ness, the magnificence, and the glory of those, which bloom and 
ripen fast by the river of God, and are immortal as the tree of life, 
Oye votaries of a scene so brief and so precarious; how much 
better would it be for you, to use this world as not abusing it, to 
receive the good it yields with thankful hearts, and suffer it to prove 
instrumental to your more intimate acquaintance with its benignant 
Author. So long as your affections are groveling as the dust ye 
walk upon, Christianity can have no form, nor comeliness, no beau- 
ty in your eyes, that ye should desire it. It loudly calls upon you 



285 



lo repent; and instead of repenting, ye plunge yourselves yet deep, 
er in the mire of pollution. It imperatively requires you to obey, 
and instead of obeying, ye do the things which ye ought not, ye 
leave undone the things which ye ought to do. A moral infatuation 
involves you, an infatuation brought about by the great deceiver, 
and whose spell must be broken, ere ye can possibly exist alive to 
the nobler purposes of existence. 

These combine to assure you, that the friendship of the world, as 
well as the carnal mind, is enmity against God. Ye must there- 
fore give it up. Ye must think, speak, and act, conscious that ye 
are everlastingly responsible for every thought, and word, and deed. 
Religion will then begin to display its unrivalled charms, and salute 
you with the choicest of its blessings. Ye will not be satisfied with 
being almost; ye will determine to be altogether Christians. On 
most of the now dearly prized attractions and pursuits of this life, 
ye will write, " Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of 
vanities ; all is vanity." On whatever tends to help you forward 
towards your heavenly home, ye will inscribe, " In the way of 
righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof, there is no death." 

Another cause of our disinclination to close with the overtures 
of the gospel is to be ascribed to our want of faith. Let no man 
tell me that he believes, whose life is in the wrong. Belief is a 
plant of more auspicious growth, and shoots out branches loaded 
with fruit of a brighter colour, and a richer taste. Can you be- 
lieve that fire is consuming, and yet thrust your hand into the flame ; 
that poison is deadly, and yet imbibe the corrosive liquid? How 
then can you in your consciences believe, that Christ is the Sa- 
viour of the world, the only Redeemer of your souls from the pains 
of death and hell, and yet boldly reject his counsels, and utterly 
refuse to be warned by his terrifick denunciations against the 
wicked. Does this indicate as if ye gave undoubted credence to 
his mission ; as if ye thought upon his gospel as the great power 
of God unto salvation; as if ye were willing to stake your life 
upon its truth; as if ye fully comprehended, th-it while there is a 
reward to the righteous, "indignation and wrath, tribulation and 
anguish" will surely overtake every soul of man that doth evil? 
To me it speaks another language, and is attributable to a far dif- 
ferent state of the mind. There are men, who will not believe 
until they are made to tremble ; who disdain to give in their ad- 



286 



Iiesion to a " faith, which is the substance of things hoped for, the 
evidence of things not seen." Place them upon the verge, and 
they will recoil from a leap into eternity. Convince them, by ocu- 
lar demonstration, that there is a place of perdition, where " their 
worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched," and then, 
and not till then, will they deign to " give diligence to make their 
calling al|d election sure." I am not so skilled in these matters, as 
to be able to point them out, with an unerring finger. But that 
they do exist, is known to themselves ; their works do testify of it 
to their consciences, with all the weight of irreligion, and all the 
precision of numbers. 

And this I term the want of faith, the want of a true, lively, and 
realizing faith. Oh I beseech you renounce it, renounce all unbe- 
lief, as ye would the most bitter potion presented by your bitterest 
foe; or the soul, it will droop and languish; it is already diseased, 
and it will otherwise die. I love inquiry. Hove to have the heart 
stormed through avenues leading from the head. And every head 
may be informed, it must be informed, before ye can "taste the 
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come." Under 
other circumstances, ye may have momentary convictions of sin: 
ye may be struck down by some sudden blow inflicted by the min- 
isters of Christ, and incited by this word in season, ye may ex- 
claim, "Almost thou pursuadest me to be a Christian." But there 
will be nothing durable, nothing that shall not pass away like a 
meteor in the air, until by much reading, by serious meditation 
and profound research, your minds shall become enlightened, and 
your faith in Jesus strongly and deeply rooted in the soil of the un- 
derstanding. It is faith alone, that through Christ can put to flight 
the corruptions of the heart, that can overcome the world, and give 
vou a right to aspire to the enviable distinction of being called the 
sons of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven. . 

The almost Christian must inevitably fail to attain these blessed 
results. He will fail upon the same principle, that King Agrippa fail- 
ed. Having heard his case, you can find no encouragement afforded 
him, by St. Paul, to rest in a partial conviction, in a sudden impulse 
in favour of the doctrines of the cross. A more legitimate feeling 
prevailed. The benevolent wish escaped his lips, " I would to God, 
that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both al- 
most, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds," 



287 



Paul therefore had not so learned Christ, as to place any eonn 
dence in the courtly smile of royal approbation. He prayed, that a 
half-way persuasion might be followed by an entire and a living 
faith. And Paul was right. He knew, that whatever compromise 
there might be on meaner things, there could be none in the article 
of religion. He knew, that our Saviour Christ had said, " He that 
is not with me is against me/' He knew, that to be almost per- 
suaded of the truth of Christianity was no better than after death 
to be almost admitted to the presence of God and the Lamb; to be 
tantalized with the view, and still debarred the privilege of actually 
chanting the song of triumph and deliverance, in the chorus of be- 
lievers. Ah no ! This last will stifle no sigh of anguish nor as- 
suage one throbbing pulse of pain. It will render the bottomless 
pit even more dismal to behold, and the vengeance of eternal fire 
more intolerable to bear. Exactly as in this life, no greater disap- 
pointment can be endured, than that which ensues, when the hand 
is extended, and the prize is unexpectedly wrested from its grasp. 

Oh then, that I could persuade you, Brethren, you who now occu- 
py the accepted time, the day of grace and salvation, that I could 
persuade you to be altogether on the side of Christ, altogether such 
as was Paul, when he stood before a crowned head, and felt that the 
gold and the jewelry, which glittered there, were poor and paltry 
bawbles compared with the splendour and glory of the crown of life, 
To be thus, ye must not take pattern by the faint exclamation of the 
text. It comes in too questionable a shape. It is a sound signify- 
ing nothing, and pregnant with no issues, that are likely to be 
brought to a good account, beyond the grave. 

Almost indeed! I have neither sympathy for the word, nor any 
the slightest confidence, in the thought, it was designed to convpv 
Under the covert of its shade, a sickly species of mo Hty ma y seem 
to flourish; but like an exotick planted in an unco- .--mial soil, it 
will eventually fade and decay; it will not be waters by the devv 
of a heavenly grace. Its possessor may even go forth with such 
keep holy time ; he may range himself in the sanctuary of the Lord 
of Hosts ; and like Agrippa listen with courtesy to the delivery of 
truths well calculated to set the soul on fire; but as our Saviour: 
said to the young man in the gospel, it may be said of him, "one 
thing thou lackest," and that one is worth the world beside ; it is the 
*ne thing needful. He has not an eye of faith to turn on Jesus, 



288 



when from the throne of his exaltation, he holds out the prize of our 
high calling, and with unutterable love exclaims, " Look unto me, 
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth ; for I am God, and there 
is none else." No, he can do no such thing, and sooner than par- 
take of his disability, I would rather be a bondman enduring the 
lash of a savage, in the person of a master; 1 would rather be a 
slave unjustly condemned to the gallies, and fated to tug at the oar 
for life, oppressed by the fervour of a mid-day sun. Whereas he, 
that has been persuaded to be altogether a Christian, altogether 
" such a one as Paul the aged Oh how serenely flow the years of 
his mortal pilgrimage: How sweetly shines the Sun of Righteous- 
ness upon the habitation of his soul : How exclusively does he love 
to have his conversation in heaven, and in this fountain of all feli- 
city anticipate the reception of joys unspeakable and full of glory. 

Would you ask, Brethren, for a more minute description? 1 will 
appeal then to the testimony of Christ, " Ye shall know them by 
their fruits." The altogether Christian has duties to perform, and 
in the sincerity of his heart, he evades none, in which he is clearly 
instructed by the Spirit of truth, the Spirit which presides over God's 
most holy word and work. He is known to mortify his members, 
which are upon the earth ; to curb the headstrong passions of his 
nature; to be animated with the disposition to live peaceably with 
all men; to be mild though firm, gentle though courageous, benevo- 
lent though discriminating in his charities, a lover of all mankind 
though a lover of himself. He is known to be a good citizen, and 
placed at the head of a family, he is tender as a husband, affection- 
ate as a parent, kind as a master, friendly and obliging as a neigh- 
bour. He is known, or rather, he knows himself to be a man of 
prayer, of secret, retired, and holy prayer, where no human eye 
can see. and a j human ear attend ; where, in the spirit of self-abase- 
t, he humbles himself before his Father in heaven, confessing 
his numberless sins, and imploring forgiveness in the name, and for 
the w e and merits of Christ Jesus, his Lord. He is known 

to remember rS e sabbath day and to keep it holy; to be at his post 
in Zion, when glad tidings of good are proclaimed in the ears of sin- 
ful and dying men; and if the sacrifice of the death of Christ is 
commemorated, he is known to cling fast to the horns of the altar, 
and to rejoice in every opportunity to glorify him in the presence of 
his saints. In a word, he is known to lead a life of faith in the Son 



289 



of God, and when I have said this, every truth is embraced, every 
sin is repented of, every command is obeyed. Paul himself could 
do no more. He could have done nothing, and therein we are all 
upon a par, he could have done nothing except God had been with 
him. 

When therefore, after his own plain, fervent and energetick man- 
ner, I again express the ardent hope, that all, who hear me this day, 
might become, not merely almost but altogether such Christians as 
was the Apostle Paul ; it is my desire, and it is my duty, to com- 
mend you all to the merciful hands and protection of Almighty God; 
to whom alone will belong all the glory and the praise, provided 
your faith be made strong, your lives holy, and your salvation cer- 
tain. And this, may He, in his infinite wisdom and out of the abun- 
dance of his goodness, mercifully grant. May he so direct your 
goings in the way, that your Christian life may be altogether of 
that description, which shall ensure peace of conscience here, and 
terminate in bliss eternal hereafter. Amen, 



SERMON XXIV. 

luke xiii. 24. 

Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will 
seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 

IT is not among the least of the many faults which serve to 
blight the promises of the human spring, that instead of being prin- 
cipally intent upon our own concerns, we are wonderfully, inclined 
to di vine the prospects, and intermeddle with the affairs of others. 
Unasked and undesired, advice floods in upon most individuals from 
innumerable fountains of wisdom. Do they embark in any enter- 
prise? All the chances of success, or of defeat, are calculated with 
minute precision. Be the event what it may : It is predicted and 
repredicted with a degree of solicitude scarcely exceeded by that 
experienced on the part of adventurers themselves. With certain 

2 O 



290 



people, " Mind your own business" is of all others the stalest and 
the flattest adage. It shuts out inquiry. It presents an insupera- 
ble barrier to idle and impertinent curiosity. It is to the busybody, 
what nauseants are to the stomach, bars and bolts to a felon. If he 
cannot find out, how others live, he hardly lives himself. If he is 
not made the depositary of a thousand secrets, which concern him 
not, he is consumed with spleen, and famished in the midst of plenty. 

What else could have tempted the man in the gospel to inquire of 
our Saviour, " Lord, are there few that be saved ?" Suppose the an- 
swer had been in the affirmative ; few is a term so extremely inde- 
finite, when we reflect upon the immense numbers, who are destin- 
ed to appear before God at the judgment day, that nothing could be 
more vague and uncertain than every calculation of personal in- 
demnity derived from such a source. Suppose it had been in the 
negative; many is liable to the same objection. It determines nothing 
individually. Whether applicable to the saved or to the lost, it 
would have utterly failed to disclose the future destiny of the inqui 
rer, and therefore our Saviour employed it. He endeavoured to 
stimulate him and his associates to active exertion, by the appro- 
priate admonition, " Strive to enter in at the strait gate." He re- 
pressed a curious and inquisitive spirit, with the broad, unlimited 
declaration, " For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and 
shall not be able." 

Answers, Brethren, that are addressed alike to the hopes and 
fears of men. To their hopes: For are we directed to strive? Who 
can have the effrontery to assert, that this striving may not in one 
case as well as in another prove successful ? It certainly holds out 
the language of encouragement to me, to you, to every man; and 
holds it out in such a manner, and from a Being so pure, so entirely 
incapable of deception, that for one I cannot believe in its being 
made null and void, through some secret, irreversible decree. To 
their fears: For are we assured, that many who seek will be disap- 
pointed? Who can rest satisfied with a few feeble and irresolute 
efforts to " walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called ?" 
Who can deem himself safe in slackening his pace on the road t© 
heaven, whexi it is predicted of many, that their hopes will be blast- 
ed, and their fears fulfilled ? 

1 entreat you, Brethren, to reflect seriously upon these things. 
Neither flatter yourselves with false expectations, nor yield to the 



291 



counsels of timidity or despair. Neither think it easy to ascend 
into heaven, nor impossible to descend into hell. It is my design 
on the present occasion to establish the converse of either proposi- 
tion. I shall exhibit the difficulties presented in the one case, the 
facilities offered in the other, and close with a few remarks intend- 
ed to impress upon your minds the infinite value and importance of 
early and persevering attention to the religion of Christ, 

And first, It is not easy, it is difficult, to ascend into heaven. I 
do not mean in an ultimate point of view. I am rather persuaded, 
that the soul of Lazarus was conveyed with the utmost ease in the 
arms of angels, and finally lodged in the bosom of Abraham. But 
the obstacles to which I allude are all confined to the surface of the 
earth. They are included within the circle of the human heart. 
The language of the scripture is, strive ; the practical answer of 
man, I will not. There is something in the gospel of Christ, which 
to the natural understanding is contemptible in doctrine, and loath- 
some in practice. And what is it? Strange and paradoxical as 
the objection may seem, the economy of our redemption is too sim- 
ple, it is not sufficiently intricate and perplexed, it requires not some 
gigantick effort proceeding from the puissant arm and undaunted 
heart of man. The riches of grace are too free and gratuitous. 
Eternal life is too much the undeserved gift of God, and is obtained 
without money and without price. It is not to be bargained for. It 
is furnished at the sole expense of asking. And hence among other 
reasons its rejection. The prayer of faith is an expedient far too 
artless and unostentatious. It accords not with the vanity, the pride, 
the ambition of our fallen nature. But had it comported with the 
divine will to require some one great and glorious exploit; I care 
not how repugnant to the feelings, how irksome to flesh and blood; 
there would arrive in the life of almost every sinner a period, when 
he would willingly forego every scruple, and gladly comply with 
the requisition. 

I will confine myself to a single example, and it shall be selected 
for the very reason, that it involves the greatest of all present ex- 
tremities. For what is dearer than life? With what tenacity do 
we cling to it. With what reluctance do we yield it up. Imagine 
then, that Almighty God had demanded its voluntary relinquish- 
ment. That to enjoy his smiles, and participate in the bliss of his 
heaven, it were previously requisite to commit the act of self-de,- 



292 



struction. How few would hesitate to avail themselves of this 
sovereign remedy for all the ills of life. Revolting as it now ap- 
pears: Dreadful as our impressions are of rushing unbidden into 
the presence of our Maker: Only let it be announced, as the sole 
medium of obtaining the rewards of eternity ; so announced, as to 
remove every doubt in relation to its authenticity, and I will ven- 
ture to assert, that the world would soon lose the larger proportion of 
its numbers. It would constitute, that "great thing," to which the 
Syrian leper would have proudly resorted, when he indignantly re- 
jected the idea of "dipping seven times in Jordan," of merely 
washing himself in order to become clean. And why? There 
would be heroism in the thought. There would be magnanimity in 
the sacrifice. There would be a noble, what men would term a 
high-minded imitation of the pretended worthies of Greek and 
Roman story. And this would nerve the arm, and steel the heart. 
It would sound well in human annals to be able to merit heaven ; 
to be able, by the perpetration of one bold and daring act, to storm 
the strait gate, and win the crown of glory. But to pray : To bend 
the stubborn knee, and the yet more stubborn spirit: To believe in 
Jesus: To look unto him as the meritorious cause of human re- 
demption, renouncing self and exalting the Lord our righteousness : 
All this is ill adapted to feed the pride, and bloat the vanity of 
man. He sighs for renown. He would scale the fortress, into 
which he would disdain to creep. He has no objection to live for* 
ever; but immortality must be gained, as the Macedonian bore 
away the peeriess diadem of the East. 

Nor is the gospel less adverse to the sensual desires of his nature. 
It opposes its veto to sins of every description, to those, that pollute 
the body, as well as those, that enslave the soul. And here is a 
difficulty, a vexatious grievance against which mortals ever have, 
and I am afraid ever will, protest as a violent encroachment upon 
their natural appetites and passions. They might possibly strive 
to believe, if belief were all-sufficient. But to strive to mortify all 
their members, to withstand every temptation, to "lay aside every 
weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset them to do this is 
indeed cutting against the grain, it is rowing against the rapid 
stream, it is equivalent to lopping off the arm, or plucking out the 
eye. They pronounce it a yoke too intolerable to be worn. They 
perceive not its necessity. "The natural man receiveth not the 



293 



things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him, - 
neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.'" Talk 
to him of the vileness and the loathsomeness of sin, and he answers, 
that it is pleasant to the eyes, agreeable to the palate, and grateful 
to the touch. Tell him in reply, that carrion itself becomes a dain- 
ty morsel in the beak of a buzzard, and he is not abashed, he is not 
confounded by an analogy to the fidelity of which every Christian is 
ready to subscribe. But beaten in the argument, he still argues on. 
The senses are to him a better guide, than either reason or experi- 
ence, the voice of conscience or the word of God. They all affirm 
of sensuality, that the end thereof is gall to the stomach and rot- 
tenness to the bones. But he scorns to apprehend what he does not 
feel. It will be time enough to give up pleasure, when it gives up 
him; to surrender of necessity, and not of choice. 

Yes, Brethren, the gate of heaven is too strait to admit the 
passage of a sensualist. He cannot crowd through with one dar- 
ling vice attached to his person, and therefore he prefers to loiter 
without, therefore an obstacle is presented to his entrance, which, 
not all the promises, nor all the threatenings of the gospel, can 
prevail upon him to overcome. In vain does eternity smile upon 
the one hand, and frown upon the other. He is neither lured by 
visions of bliss, nor terrified by prospects of misery. He strives, 
but it is upon the broad road that leads to destruction. Here are no 
difficulties. Here are facilities enough and to spare. But when 
he has arrived at the end of his race, he will find, that although 
the descent to hell has been ever so smooth, there is neither downy 
bed, nor silken fetters within its fearful abodes. 

. In commencing a few observations upon the second branch of 
the discourse, it is necessary to premise, that there is a class of 
sinners, less corrupt and hardened, who flatter themselves with the 
conviction that they are striving to fulfil the requisition of the text. 
Are they then to be considered as having approximated the portal 
it describes? More important still: Are they universally destined 
to enter in? Our blessed Saviour resolves the inquiry in these 
words of solemn and alarming import, "Many, I say unto you, will 
seek to enter in, and shall not be able." In endeavouring to ac- 
count for this, I shall submit no verbal analysis of the difference 
existing between striving and seeking. I am indeed satisfied that 
the words are used as synonymes. They mean the same thing. 



294 



and clearly show ihat it is very possible to come to a fearful end f 
although the skies are clear, and the sun shines, and the fondest 
anticipations beguile the soul. I have already adverted to these, as 
among the causes, to the facilities which cluster upon the broad 
road, and that assume every Proteus form and chameleon hue, lest 
the hapless victim should be diverted from their pursuit, and by any 
means turn his back upon them. 

One among the number is of this nature. The sinner is frequent- 
ly to be found travelling in that fatal path entirely unconscious of his 
real condition. It is thus when his salvation is supposed to depend 
upon the mere principles of worldly wisdom. In conformity to its 
dictates, the servant is entitled to his wages, the physician to his 
fee, the statesman to the emoluments of his office. And a similar 
process of reasoning is applied to the concerns of eternity. Its re^ 
wards are anticipated on the ground of personal desert. The good 
works of this life are thought to purchase an indefeisible right to 
the inheritance of the saints in light. But what a wretched per- 
version of holy scripture must this be, when its language is so 
clear and perspicuous, that he who runs may read : " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." " Christ is the end of 
the law for righteousness to every one that believeth," " After 
that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appear- 
ed, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but ac- 
cording to his mercy he saved us." "When ye shall have done al! 
those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable 
servants : We have done that which was our duty to do." 

There is indeed not one single passage in the bible, that will fairly 
admit of a different construction. And how loose must be the 
theology of that man, how passionless his love, how cold and inanir 
mate the pretended warmth of his gratitude, who purposely excludes 
a Saviour from being the sole meritorious cause of his redemption; 
who receives him for a Prophet, but rejects him, as a Priest offering 
his own body upon the tree, a sacrifice for all. Moses would be 
entitled to equal praise; for he also was a prophet and a lawgiver. 
And has it come to this, that Moses is as much our Saviour as Christ? 
Is it nothing to have veiled his divinity in a servant's form? Is it 
nothing for him to have been " a man of sorrows, and acquainted 
with grief?" Is it nothing to have died as never man died, treading 
She wine-press of the wrath of God, and then enduring the co? 



295 



iected weight and burden of all human guilt? Surely, Brethren', 
there must have been some necessity for the infliction of this un- 
paralleled suffering, or it would never have transpired. " Surely" 
as Isaiah prophetically announced " he hath borne our griefs, and 
carried our sorrows " he was wounded for our transgressions, he 
was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace wag 
upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." 

Tell me not then of the sinner having ceased from his downward 
career, who overlooks these essential features of the mystery of 
godliness. He is only following the multitude. He may have 
certain virtues, such virtues as may challenge the applause of the 
world. But the grace required in the gospel, he has it not. Of 
this best furniture of the soul, he is destitute; for grace proceedeth 
of faith, that faith which elevates Christ to be King in Zion, the 
Saviour of his people, the hope and the consolation of Israel. I 
may love the tyrant, who spares my life ; but in the estimation of 
others, he will be a tyrant still. The world may be much indebted to 
sinners, who cultivate gentle manners and evince philanthropic!?, 
feelings, and there are many such; but in the estimation of that 
God, who exacts unfeigned faith in his Son, who demands that every 
moral and religious duty should be performed in the name, which 
is above every other name, they will be sinners still. To profit 
him, to make him our debtor, transcends all the labour of our hands 
and head. If we would be saved, we must consequently take sal- 
vation as a free gift ordained and bestowed for the worthy sake and 
merits of our august Redeemer. 

Others again are actually journeying on the broad road owing to 
another kindred facility, which it affords. Contrary to the experi 
ence of those, who adhere to the narrow way, it admits of their re- 
conciling the well known incongruity of serving two masters. One 
while, they are all for Christ. From their expressions, you would 
think, that his was the only liberty in which they delighted. To 
their eyes, he is the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley; to 
their taste, sweeter than honey and the honey-comb; to their 
souls, the heavenly manna and the bread of life. At another, trace 
them throughout their intercourse with their fellow men, and their 
practice will soon appear to be at open variance with their profes- 
sions. They can defraud a little, and prevaricate a little, and slan- 
der more. They can rival the worst lover of the world in selfish 



296 



feelings, morose passions, and sordid habits. They can do much 
for the souls, but nothing for the bodies of the poor. They can 
wear their livery untarnished on the sabbath, but in the course of 
the week, it is soiled, and polluted, and spotted with sin. They 
can pray in the presence of assembled multitudes, but they pray 
not, where God hath promised to behold in secret, and afterwards 
to reward openly. They can give good advice, but in point of ex- 
ample, they are not followers of Paul, as he also was a follower of 
Christ. And what is the consequence? In vain do they think to 
seek and to serve him, whom they profess to love. He is not caught 
by words. He is not propitiated by the melody of sounding brass 
or tinkling cymbal. He insists upon a residence within. His ad- 
monition is, "My son, give me thine heart;" not the moiety only, 
but thine whole heart; my throne must occupy its centre; my scep- 
tre must extend oyer all its ramifications ; else will I reject your 
outward sighs and tears, your most solemn appeals for mercy. Ye 
must enter my kingdom altogether cleansed, or the sentence of eter- 
nal exclusion shall separate us forever. 

Another facility connected with the broad road to hell, and fa- 
vouring the continuance of the sinner with the crowded throng of 
its votaries, is this, its counsels are the counsels of procrastination. 
Such is the language it ever holds out to its travellers, and predis- 
posed as they naturally are to its reception, they are easily per- 
suaded to connive at its falsehood. If they seek a fortune, they 
commence early. If they strive to obtain intellectual pre-eminence, 
it is not at the close of a long life of ignorance. But if they are 
called upon to seek and strive for experimental religion, although it 
should be the first object to engross their thoughts, it is with many, 
probably with far the larger proportion of nominal Christians, the 
very last. Not being absolutely essential to their present existence, it 
is easily deferred to the period of sickness and disease, of age and in- 
firmity. But you need not be surprised, if the full-blown sinner 
upon a dying bed should prove incapable jof making his calling and 
election sure. Is this a time for vigorous efforts of the under- 
standing, for cordial exercises of the heart? Who would not flinch 
at the cannon's mouth? Who would not be startled unexpectedly 
driven to the brink of a precipice? Do you think, that the old man ; 
with a mind attenuated as his frame, and habits rigid as his muscles, 
will find the evening of his life as well adapted as the morning to 



£97 



conciliate the divine mercy? Who would not trim the quivering 
lamp on the eve of being involved in darkness ? Who would not 
pour a little oil into its socket, if that little could convert eternal 
night, into eternal day? Alas, Brethren, under such circumstances, 
the descent into hell is more than easy, it is almost certain. If in- 
deed our God was like unto man ; if he was not beyond all com- 
parison rich in mercy and plenteous in forgivenesses, the eleventh 
hour, whether produced by sickness or by age, would always prove 
a most fatal hour. In all such cases he would literally te.ugh at 
the calamity of the sinner, and mock when his fear cometh. And 
even as it is, "gracious and merciful" as he is, " slow to anger, and 
of great kindness," and a God that " repenteth him of the evil ;" 
even now, it is seriously to be apprehended of the multitudes brought 
to this extremity, that " many be called but few chosen." They 
strive, but it is the strife of a drowning man. They repent, but 
it is the repentance of fear. They believe, but it is the belief of 
those, who "believe and tremble." I know that there may be ex- 
ceptions, lknow, that early impressions and serious thoughts, ex- 
isting for a length of time, may be brought to maturity and fully 
ripened just as the spirit takes its everlasting flight. But to rest 
secure and unagitated upon this presumption indicates excessive 
weakness and credulity. The most, that persons in this condition 
can do, is to hope : While Christians of a longer life of faith and 
obedience are certain. They have no final apprehensions, no ul- 
timate misgivings of the soul. As a general rule, to seek effectu- 
ally is therefore to seek betimes: To strive to enter in, at the last, 
is to strive against time and tide, against experience, and against 
conviction. 

I might enlarge. Having confined myself to the more reputable 
classes of offenders, I might advert to others; I might seize upon 
numerous topicks all tending to illustrate the fact of there being sp 
many facilities on " the way to hell, going down to the chamber^ 
of death ;" so many presented by the attractions, amusements, and 
grosser vices of this world, and all of them materially aided in 
their seductive properties, by the evil imaginations and sensual 
desires of the heart, that the innumerable throng of sinners is sadly 
proportioned to the width of " the wide gate," and the breadth of 
"the broad way." But brevity compels me to desist. Many there 
be. who never think of seeking or striving in another direction ; or 

2P 



§6$ 

if they do, they miserably fail, because they seek not, they strive 
not, in humble conformity to the will of God. 

In drawing to a conclusion, the remarks to be submitted are ob- 
vious. You must, Brethren, embrace religion now, even to-day • 
to-morrow is to be regarded as the dream of ideots, and its promises 
the scorn of the wise. You do not defer to that period the recep- 
tion of your temporal food. Why then^ that which is spiritual? 
Is the body of more value than the soul, the scabbard than the 
sword, the vault than the gold it contains ? You must embrace it 
with all your heart. To love in part is to hate in part. To be 
for Christ in one thing, and for Belial in another, shows that he 
reigns not Lord Paramount in your affections j that he is not, in 
your eyes, what he is represented to be in the scriptures, "over all, 
God blessed forever.'" You must consequently bear true allegiance 
to the Cross in all things, in your thoughts, in your words, and in 
your actions. You must embrace all its doctrines, and you must 
practise all its duties. Striving to believe, you must employ your 
reason to understand, and not to add to or to subtract from the scrip- 
tures j to invent new forms of doctrines or to explode those, which 
have grown old, from having stood the test of ages. "For what if 
some" will " not believe ? Shall their unbelief make the faith of 
God without effect ?" Do you imagine, that it can alter the dimen- 
sions of the strait gate and the narrow way ? Will they be en- 
larged in order to gratify the fastidiousness of an infidel ? Is God 
so much in want of his future services, the services of him who 
hesitates not to deny the Lord that bought him, as to strike down 
the postern of heaven, and admit within its blessed mansions tha 
spirit of distrust, and heresy, and unbelief? Not thus have I 
studied the character of God. Not thus has he revealed himself in 
holy oracles. "He that believeth^ and is baptized,- shall be saved; 
buthe that believeth not, shall be damned." 

Again, Brethren, striving to obey, you must make the perform- 
ance of one duty instrumental to the performance of another and 
another. Not one of them is to be despised, not one of them to 
be rejected. The same prerogative and authority pervade all. The 
same Being, who wrote the first,, hath written all the command- 
ments. If you break one, there is a sense in which you break the 
whole. "For whosoever shall keep the whole lc,w, and yet offend 
in one point, he is guilty of ail." Strait as is the ^ate, not less strait 



299 



*s the law; and would you enter there? You must strive to "be 
perfect and entire, wanting nothing;" to be "without spot and 
blameless;" to be resolute and persevering unto the day of Christ, 
" lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you 
should seem to come short of it." 

For motives, I present you, on the one hand, with the best and 
the fairest recorded in the book of life. I present you with heaven; 
and if ye have any just conception of what heaven is, I need name 
no more, to call out all the energies of the spirit, soul, and body, 
with the view of making it your own. While here below, the 
Christian is "afflicted;" but there he is* " comforted." Here he 
has enemies to contend with; "there the wicked cease from 
troubling ; and there the weary are at rest." Here he " sees through 
a glass darkly ," he only "knows in part;" there he shall see " face 
to face," he " shall know even as he also is known." Here, at his 
best estate, he merely tastes the streams; there he shall bathe and 
fill the enraptured soul in the fountain of eternal joy. 

I present you, on the other hand, with everlasting wo escaped,, 
with everlasting death deprived of its victim. Enter in at the strait 
gate, persevere upon the narrow way ; and ye shall never realize 
those dreadful miracles, the corrosion of the worm, that destroys 
without destroying; the vengeance of the fire, that consumes with- 
out consuming. I know not how others may calculate to endure 
such tortures. I know not how they can possibly content them- 
selves in the service of a master, who will then become the chief 
instrument in inflicting agonies unutterable upon many, that are 
now seduced by his arts, and charmed with his blandishments. 
But this I know, in relation to my office and ministry, that I will 
not cease to warn impenitent sinners H to flee from the wrath to 
come." I will not cease to implore the Lord, that "strengthened 
with might by his Spirit in the inner man," I may have grace and 
power to put them upon their guard, and, if it seemeth good to him, 
effectually preserve them from the assaults of the most subtle, as 
he is the most fatal enemy of human happiness. God is "not wil- 
ling that any should perish," Christ is not willing, and his faithful 
ambassadors are not willing. V\ T e must not, Brethren, we cannot 
consent to be "saying, peace, peace; when there is no peace." It 
woald be more than either your pleasure or your displeasure is 
worth. It would expose us to the severe rebuke, " they have healed 



I 



300 

the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly." Especially when 
there is a cure, a sovereign and never failing cure. It proceeds 
from the great Physician of souls. Would to God, that I could 
prevail upon you to adopt it. Would to God, that ye would this day 
commence in good earnest that striving for holiness and against 
sin, which will not only heal the wounds of your peace, but com- 
mand an entrance into life eternal. 

So full, so free, so unrestricted, are the means of grace, that, pro- 
vided you employ them precisely in the manner of God's appoint- 
ment, there is no reason to despair of a successful result. What if 
the enemy be vigilant and artful? By the divine blessing, ye shall 
prove more than a match for his untiring eye and cunning strata- 
gems. What if the gate be confessedly strait, and the way narrow ? 
There is enough in prayer to vanquish every obstacle; there is "help 
laid upon One that is mighty.'" "The weapons of our warfare 
are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong 
holds : Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that ex~ 
alteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into cap- 
tivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 1 " And this, may 
our heavenly Father of his infinite mercy grant ; may we so strive 
and seek, that we may gain an entrance into the blissful regions, 
where he dwells; and to Him, the Father, to the Son, and Holy 
Ghost, three persons and one God, shall be ascribed all honour, and 
glory, and dominion, and power, world without end . Amen. 



I 



301 



SERMON XXV. 

1 corinthians vii. 29, 30, 31. 

But this I say, Brethren, the time is short: itremaineth, that both they 
that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, 
as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they re- 
joiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And 
they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this 
icorld passeth away. 

WE often hear of the brevity of human life : How rapidly 
the moments glide in swift succession down the stream of time : 
How narrow are the boundaries of the days of the Son of Man: 
With what velocity manhood and age steal upon the scarcely con- 
scious traveller to remind him, that his days are fast verging to 
the house appointed for all the living. On this subject the scrip- 
tures are eminently beautiful and sublime. " Our days on earth 
are as a shadow." They "are swifter than a weaver's shuttle.'" 
"They are passed away as the swift ships; as the eagle that hast- 
eth to the prey." "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, 
and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down." 
" His days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth: 
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone ; and the place thereof 
shall know it no more." "For what is your life? It is even a va- 
pour, that appearelhr for a little time, and then vanisheth away." 

And yet, when we have strangely, and I may add, almost miracu- 
lously escaped all the perils incident to infancy and youth; when 
we have survived the prime of life, and find ourselves quietly re- 
posing in the vale of years, it would seem as if the retrospect of the 
past presented a long and lengthened period, on which to exercise 
the recollecting powers of the mind. To the man of fourscore years, . 
it appears an age since he was young. He can by no process in 
numbers bring to a point the intervening hours, and days, and 
months. He feels that he is old. His gray hairs, his furrowed 
cheeks, his decrepit limbs, all combine to tell &im ? that they have 



302 

aot been wrought in the twinkling of an eye, ere he could look 
around, and gain some little knowledge of himself, his nature, the 
powers of his body, and the faculties of his soul. His memory is 
rather surcharged with numerous thoughts resulting from numerous 
events. Though the passing moments flew, the years still lingered 
on, and many an octogenarian has been known to confess, that he 
was weary of the world, that having outlived the friends and com-? 
panions of his youth, he would gladly lie down in the dust, and be 
no more remembered. 

It is consequently in a relative point of view alone, that the Apos- 
tle assures us, " the time is short." Compared with the ephemeral 
existence of many insects, with the brief space allotted to most 
animals, with the transient blossoms of the infant dead, it is long, 
surpassing long. But if weighed in the balance against many oth- 
er circumstances, tjiose of a truly imposing character, it becomes 
short, emphatically short as any dream. Its uncertainty is one. 
We know not what a day may bring forth. The work we have to 
perform is another. The poor man does not think of personal ag- 
grandizement ; the illiterate do not calculate upon attaining literary 
renown; I had almost said, the wicked do not flatter themselves 
with realizing the hopes of the righteous, after they are old. These 
expectations are rather thought to attach to an earlier age, to that 
springtide in the affairs of men, which "once neglected never floods 
again.'" And then, eternity is a third and undeniable proof of the 
shortness of human life. Compared with this, we have ample rea- 
son to adopt the words of the psalmist, and say, " Behold, thou hast 
made my days as a hand-breadth, and mine age is as nothing be- 
fore thee: Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity 
There is nothing long but the duration to be spent in heaven or 
hell. All else is a mathematical point upon a line, that has neither 
beginning nor end. We can glide with the swiftness of thought 
from the day of our birth to the day of our death; but to grasp the 
idea of eternity belongs to God alone. 

You perceive therefore the true meaning of all those passages of 
the sacred volume, which circumscribe to a unit the passing shad- 
ows of the world. If there were nothing beyond the grave, if the 
soul died with the body, entirely irresponsible for its actions, wheth- 
er good or bad, existence would be measured solely by our present 
Conceptions of time, and would be either long or short, in the pro- 



303 



portion, we were permitted to dwell upon the face of the earth. But 
as it is, in view of those revelations from heaven, which inform us 
that it never dies; that it is immortal and eternal, as its Maker is 
immortal and eternal, no truth can be more clear and convincing 
than that advanced by the Apostle, "This I say, Brethren, the time 
is short." The day of probation will soon be over. You have a 
little while, in which to prepare to meet your God. u The night 
cometh, when no man can work." u Behold, now is the accepted 
time; behold, now is the day of salvation;" and exactly as it is im- 
proved or unimproved, so will an eternity of happiness or of misery 
convince you, that short is of all others the epithet most character- 
istickof the transient scenes of life, including the virtues and vices 
exhibited by our frail mortality. 

Let us attend then with seriousness and solemnity to the inferen- 
ces suggested by St, Paul, and fully persuaded of their importance 5 
by them, so regulate our lives and conduct, that whether we live or 
die, we may live or die unto the Lord. It remaineth, he tells us, in 
the first place, " that they that have wives be as though they had 
none.*' And permit me to say, there are few passages more clearly 
indicative of the supreme value of religion. For where is the earth- 
ly relation possessing attractions sufficient to eclipse the marriage 
tie' If I remember right, it has been aptly and justly termed " the 
sweetener of life, the solderer of society." It gives character to 
youth, dignity to manhood, new life and animation to age. They, 
who have been long united, whose dispositions and feelings were 
cast in the same mould, whose hearts have been knit into one. 
w hose minds have constantly reflected each other's sentiments and 
virtues, whose union has been crowned with what the psalmist calls 
the ' ; heritage of the Lord;" if they are not happy, then in the lan- 
guage of the misanthrope is all temporal happiness the merest bub- 
ble in existence. There is no place for love, for tenderness, for 
sympathy. There is no moral magnet to attract. There are nc 
congenial hearts to be attracted. 

But in opposition to all this, that divine Being, who knew what 
was in man ; w ho needed not that any should tell him his most se- 
cret thoughts; he, himself has pronounced the highest eulogium 
upon the marriage institution. He has selected it as the emblem of 
all others best adapted to convey an adequate idea of the fervency 
of his affection to the children of men. In the economy of our re- 



304 



demption, he is the Bridegroom, and the Church is the Bride : " I 
am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine." Does the Apostle then 
enjoin upon those that have wives, and of course upon those that 
have husbands, to be as though they had none? Oh how inestima- 
bly valuable must be that religion, which in the contrast impover- 
ishes these endearing relations, and throws them into the shade; 
which holds up to view a nobler prize, and unveils an infinitely 
richer source of happiness to mortal eyes and hearts. He does not 
mean, that the married are to renounce their mutual affection. He 
does not intend to contradict what he elsewhere inculcates, " Wives, 
submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord." 
" Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, 
and gave himself for it." But his object is fully explained in the 
succeeding verses. In his time, whatever may be the fact with us, 
there existed this remarkable distinction to the prejudice of mar- 
riage and in favour of celibacy; " He that is unmarried careth for 
the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord: 
But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, 
how he may please his wife." And to this he objects, this prefer- 
ence of the finite, to the Infinite. He had himself, " whether in the 
body," "or whether out of the body," he "could not tell; he had 
himself been " caught up into paradise," and having witnessed its 
unspeakable glories, he did not hesitate to regard their acquisition 
far beyond the highest of all earthly enjoyments. He rather "count- 
ed ail things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ 
Jesus his Lord." In comparison of this, even the nuptial tie lost its 
powerful charm; it ceased to deserve the first place in the human 
heart, and faded into relative insignificance. 

Nor can we upon serious reflection for a moment refuse to agree 
with him. I will take the happiest pair surrounded by the happiest 
family on which the sun has ever shone ; they shall reciprocate 
each other's love to a degree outvying the tenderness of the wedded 
dove; and still, What is their happiness, when contrasted with the 
happiness of heaven ? To say nothing of the vast difference in point 
of intensity, it is sufficient to remark, that in the one case, it is be- 
gun, continued, and ended here; in the other, it is everlasting; it 
has a commencement, but it has no end ; " Thou wilt show me the 
path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand 
there are pleasures forevermore." How vain and fallacious then to 



305 



surrender the hope of their possession even at the fairest of all earth- 
ly shrines. Particularly when we consider the uncertainty attend- 
ing every thing human. • How often have the fondest ties been 
rudeJy snapt in twain! How early has the blooming bride been 
consigned to the mouldering tomb! How abruptly have parents 
been required to mourn the loss of their smiling babes! And deaf 
to these agonizing lessons of instruction, shall we continue to dote 
upon our fleeting idols, heedless of every thing else, reckless of the 
value, the welfare, and the happiness of the undying soul? No, no : 
We may love them, tenderly and affectionately love them. It is 
our duty, and praised be God, our duty is never at variance with 
the best feelings and inclinations of the heart. But still we must 
love them as though we had none ; as though they wei*e to be re- 
moved from our sight at a moment's warning; as though we were 
widowed and childless, without one link of a chain to fetter the 
soul, and prevent it from " seeking those things which are above, 
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God." In a word, we must 
love them in decided subserviency to the love of God ; to the love of 
that gracious Being, who, with more affection than ever belonged to 
husband or wife, parent or child, came to redeem and save us; 
came, while we were yet sinners, to bleed and die, that we might be 
exalted to those pure regions, where " they neither marry, nor are 
given in marriage, but are as the angels of God." 

It remaineth, in the second place, that " they that weep be as 
though they wept not." That there are numerous sources of afflic- 
tion in the world is too evident to be denied. We have all felt them. 
In some shape or other, to some degree or other, distress and even 
anguish of mind have been the lot of every individual, who has ar? 
rived at the years of maturity. He is either poor, and forced to 
u eat the bitter bread of misery;" or sick and infirm, with sleepless 
nishts to follow days of languishment and pain; or exempted from 
penury and disease, he has been bereft of what the heart held most 
dear; his home has been invaded by the tyrant death, and tears 
have been made to flow over ruined hopes, and worldly prospects 
forever blasted. Is it possible then to weep, as though he wept not; 
as'though there were something in reserve, enough to still the voice 
of his complaint, and induce him to bear up manfully against the 
swelling surges of calamity ? Yes, Brethren, to the praise and hon- 
our of our most holv faith, be it spoken, there is in religion 3 speci- 

2R 



30tf 

iickfor every sorrow, a balm for every wound. It does not mdeea 
insist, that we should never sigh, never drop the scalding tear; for 
Christ himself both sighed and wept. He sighed for the hardheart- 
ed ness of the multitude, and weeping at the tomb of Lazarus, in 
this manner consecrated one of the most tender and natural im- 
pulses connected with our humanity. 

And yet, to the piously afflicted of every class and station, there 
is a large share of comfort to be drawn from the consideration ap- 
pealed to, by the Apostle; " The time is short." Are they poor and 
needy? The hour is at hand, when " they shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more;" when the cold winds of winter will no 
longer search their tattered garb; when the manifold ills of poverty 
will be joyfully exchanged for "treasures in heaven, where neither 
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through 
nor steal." Are they beset with pain? Are they weighed down 
with sickness? So was the holy Job, so the wretched Lazarus. But 
now they are comforted, and soon shall it be thus with them, 
" Sickness and death shall both agree 
" To bring" them, " Lord, at last to thee." 

Are they in the number of those, who mourn the departure of be 
loved friends and relatives? " I would not have you to be ignor- 
ant, brethren," says the Apostle, " concerning them which are 
asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." A 
little while, and there will be no barrier to intervene between them 
and the lamented dead. A little while r and they will have the in 
expressible felicity of being reunited to their surviving spirits, to 
part no more. If such then are the consolations attending the hope 
of the gospel, see you not, that Christians have every reason to 
weep, as though they wept not; as though they were already invest- 
ed with " beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment 
of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Surely it is in this aspect, 
that we must all concur in celebrating the divine goodness and 
compassion. No murmurings, no repinings should mingle with the 
sorrows of the righteous. The time is short, for weeping; but thero 
is a long eternity, in which to rejoice and be glad; a long eternity, 
in which the spirits of those, that were endeared upon earth, will 
be happy in each other's society forever and ever. 

It remaineth, in the third piace, thai " they that rejoice be as though 
they rejoiced not." An inference including, as I apprehend, the 



307 



-case of all those, who are highly elated with the prosperity, which 
attends them, whether it be in relation to their health, their fortune, 
or their vices. Strange, when the world is perpetually turning its 
back upon its votaries, and dismissing them from the stage of ac- 
tion ; strange, with so many examples before their eyes of a complete 
reverse of circumstances; strange, that they should still exult and 
revel, as if they were to exult and revel forever. It might be 
thought, that the many admonitions of the scriptures, united to per- 
sonal observation, would long since have proved too hard for the 
transgressor, and have taught him to understand and consider his 
latter end. Take for example the severe irony of the royal preach- 
er, " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth j and let thy heart cheer 
thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, 
and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou, that for all these 
things God will bring thee into judgment." But alas, it is not thus. 
There is no such redeeming spirit to repress the gay illusions of 
youth, of affluence, of pleasure. As the world was, so it continues 
to be. The time is short. We are ever treading upon the mar 
gin of the tomb. We are literally crowding each other into the land 
of silence; and still there are mirth, and revelry, and song; still 
the cry is, t am young, I am strong, " I am rich, and increased with 
goods, and have need of nothing." The good old fashioned scrip- 
ture is derided, which saith, a It is better to go to the house of mourn- 
ing than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men; 
and the living will lay it to heart." Sooner or later, however, they 
will " be afflicted, and mourn and weep : their laughter will be turn- 
ed to mourning, and their joy to heaviness." "Be not deceived: 
God is not mocked : for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap cor- 
ruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life 
everlasting." 

It behooves us therefore, Brethren, to rejoice as though we re 
joiced not. In other words, to be " transformed by the renewing of 
our minds;" sensible that, while we continue in a state of sin, we 
have no real cause for joy or self-gratulation ; that we ought not to 
be dazzled by the glare of surrounding objects, nor suffer ourselves 
for one single moment to forget, that we are mortal and perishing, 
that we are moral and accountable beings. If there be a person on 
^he face of the earth, whose whole character requires to be changed 



308 



Wore his features can with propriety assume a joyous complexion, 
it is the gay and thoughtless, the licentious and voluptuous sinner. 
If there be one, whose countenance may always wear the smile of 
peace and happiness, it is the faithful, pious^and obedient Christian, 
Similar remarks apply to the next inference drawn by the Apos- 
tle : ft remaineth, that " they that buy be as though they possessed 
not." The desire of accumulating wealth is coeval with our histo- 
ry. " The love of money" is pronounced to be " the root of all evil."' 
And yet, there are few among us, who can lay their hands upon 
their hearts, and with a clear conscience exclaim, I have enough 
and to spare. We are rather all of us more or less inclined to in- 
trease our worldly substance. And certainly, when that inclina 
tion is controlled by fair views and proper motives, it is laudable, 
just, and right, beneficial to ourselves and families, to our country 
and the world. But what are those motives? We must not "trust 
in uncertain riches, but in the living God." We are not to " join 
house to house," and " lay field to field," as if life were bestowed 
with no higher object to engross our time and talents. We are- not 
to be so careful and busy about the things that perish, as to neglect 
those that are imperishable and eternal. We are to bear in mind, 
that let our riches be ever so great, they will never supply the place 
of the "pearl of great price;" that God is not so poor, as to be sus- 
ceptible of a bribe; that the crown of glory is not an article of mer- 
chandise set up at auction, and affording an opportunity to the high- 
est bidder to purchase the salvation of his soul. But this blessed 
consummation, following in the train of a well-spent life, is to be 
gained by estimating our temporal concerns exceeding cheap in 
comparison of eternity. In this sense it is, that they who buy are 
to be as though they possessed not. They are to live under the 
solemn conviction, that they are about to die, that the time is short, 
in which the largest fortune can be called their own, and the period 
constantly approaching nearer and nearer, when they must bid a 
long farewell to their earthly possessions; when they will receive 
more real heartfelt satisfaction, in bearing away to another and a 
better world, the testimony of an approving conscience, than was 
ever enjoyed by the whole host of misers, in the midst of the greatest 
revenues gathered without right, and hoarded up without mercy or 
compassion, without ever abstracting a cent to relieve the sick, to 
feed the hungry, or clothe the naked. 



309 



The last inference adopted by the Apostle is this, It remaineth, 
that u 'they that use this world be as not abusing it." From which 
we learn, in opposition to men of severe and contracted views, that 
the world and all that it contains, sin only excepted, is worthy of 
the goodness and benevolence of Him, who created it. It is adapt- 
ed to our wants, to our innocent gratifications, to all that portion of 
happiness, which the wise and good are permitted to enjoy beneath 
the canopy of heaven. They, who are forever disparaging it, little 
think how much they vainly attempt to detract from the wisdom of 
its Author, how perversely they confound its accidental with its 
natural properties. These last always deserve our warmest ad- 
miration. They were ordered in love, and are opulent in blessings. 
After finishing the work of creation, " God saw every thing that he 
had made, and behold, it was very good." St. Paul contends that 
"every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be 
received with thanksgiving." And so in relation to all inanimate 
substances, to the whole universe, with its beauty, its order, its har- 
mony, its usefulness, these all proclaim in letters traced by a sun- 
beam, 

" The hand that made us is divine." 
The great misfortune is, that the tenantry of this world are too apt 
to employ their ingenuity in educing evil out of good. They di- 
vert to sinful purposes those objects, which were designed to con- 
fer a blessing upon our race. Wine for instance was intended to 
cheer the heart of man, not to intoxicate him ; the various kinds 
of food to sustain his body in health and vigour, not to convert him 
into a glutton. And thus I might proceed in running the distinction 
between the use and the abuse of every thing. There is nothing 
sinful, because it is beautiful to the eye or melodious to the ear; 
because it is delicious to the taste or redolent to the smell. A rich- 
ly variegated landscape is as harmless, as a barren waste; the 
warbling musick of the groves, as the grating discord cf an instru- 
ment out of tune; I am for luscious, not insipid fruit; for aromat- 
ick, not mephitick plants. It is only when we pervert the good 
gifts of God to unhallowed practices, that "sin lieth at the door." 
It is only against this perversion, this wretched and ungrateful 
abuse of them, that the Apostle cautions us in the words of the text. 
And to profit by his instruction, it is necessary, that we should be 
temperate in all things ; that we should keep our bodies in subjec- 



310 



tion, and impose proper restrictions upon our appetites and passions. 
When they would fain usurp the mastery over reason ; when they 
would lead us astray, and entice us to tread on forbidden ground; 
we should sit down and deliberately count the cost; see where the 
advantage, where the disadvantage lies ; what blessings centre on 
the narrow, what evils throng the broad way, that leadeth to des- 
truction. It is by a calm and dispassionate investigation of these 
things, that we shall ever find the path of duty to be the path of 
happiness. The best mode of enjoying the world is to use it in such 
a manner, as to be prepared at all times to dismiss it, without a sigh 
of reluctance, or a pang of regret. 

We should do this, among other reasons, for that assigned by St. 
Paul, "the fashion of this world passeth away because we have 
here " no continuing city, but we seek one to come." Pass some 
few months or years, and all the delightful scenes, which now in- 
terest can interest no more. To the clay cold corpse despoiled of 
its spirit, it will afford no gratification, that there are musick and 
dancing on the earth, or eating and drinking, or marrying and giv- 
ing in marriage; that beauty has its worshippers, talent its ad 
mirers, perfidious pleasure its unsuspecting dupes. But if that 
spirit departed hence in the Lord ; if it had previously accomplished 
all the good work of grace, in singleness of heart, in purity of 
purpose, in holiness of faith and obedience; oh! how happy will it 
be in the practical conviction, that the death of the body has proved 
the life of the soul; that it has "clean escaped" from the pollutions 
of the world, and is safely landed upon those blissful shores, where 
no arts of the tempter, no seductions of the wicked, no risings of 
natural corruption, can ever disturb its residence, or jeopardize its 
.everlasting felicity. 

Be advised therefore, Brethren, to covet earnestly this blessed 
termination to what has been termed the fashion of the world. It is 
not for me to search your bosoms, and identify the individuals to 
whom the language of the Apostle attaches with the greatest force 
and significancy. It is enough that you yourselves must be con- 
scious where your heart and your treasure is. Whether ye are the 
children of your heavenly Father or not. Whether ye are penitent 
or impenitent sinners. Whether ye are already born again, or are 
still devoted to the beggarly elements of the world. On this sub- 
ject, there can be no great room for doubt. There is a monitor 



m 

within, that, in your respective cases, freely resolves the question ? 
whether ye are prepared or unprepared to die. Should it decide 
against you, oh ! let me persuade the sinner no longer to loiter in 
those thorny paths of sin, whose wages is death, eternal death. 
The time is short. To all of us, it is short. To some perchance, 
so very brief, that this may be the last sermon, the last admonition, 
they will ever hear. How appropriate then would be the solemn 
annunciation of the prophet to one of the kings of Judah, " Set 
thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live:" How appli- 
cable the fervent prayer of the psalmist, "O spare me, that I may 
recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more." 

It is indeed a serious thing for the wicked man to die. He may 
well tremble at the thought. He may well shrink with horrour 
from the reality. But in the case of the truly righteous, he can 
say with Paul, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." 
Be wise therefore, "while it is called to-day; lest any of you be 
hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." Be wise to emulate 
him in his career of faith and holiness, that ye may enjoy his hopes 
and consolations in your hour of utmost need. And may Almighty 
God, in his infinite compassion, send home these truths, "in demon- 
stration of the spirit and of power," to your several hearts. While 
herein the world, "only let your conversation be as it becometh 
the gospel of Christ," and when its fashion shall have passed away 5 
may the same good angels, that ministered to the holy Jesus, after 
his hour of agony, bear you in triumph to the paradise of God ; 
may the light and the glory of heaven at length dawn upon your 
ravished souls; may the God of grace prove the strength of all our 
hearts j and our portion forever. Amen, 



312 



SERMON XXVI. 

acts xxvi. 8. 

Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should 
raise the dead? 

THIS was the question addressed by Paul to King Agrippa. 
and was at'that time so far from being considered susceptible of the 
smile of incredulity, that, to the whole triumphant vindication of 
the doctrine of Christ, the royal listener was compelled to reply, 
"Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Paul answered 
and " said, I would to Goc that not only thou, but also all that hear 
me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except 
these bonds." The interrogatory itself has been adopted, as the 
foundation of the ensuing discourse, with views similar to those of 
the holy Apostle, and because I am aware, that, in the existing age 
of the world, arguments of no equivocal or conjectural character 
are requisite in order to convince the gainsayer, to convert the un- 
converted, and "turn the disobedient to the wisdom of the just." 

So far indeed as my acquaintance embraces the pious and the 
good, the truly faithful in Christ Jesus, 1 have observed little atten- 
tion paid to the mere decoration of the body. While decorum is 
consulted, and eccentricity avoided, they yet contrive to keep it in 
subjection; they sedulously endeavour to remove every impedi 
ment, that may obstruct the ascent of their souls heavenward: 
agreeably to the inspired declaration, " they that are Christ's have 
crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts." And still, they 
look forward in serene and joyful expectation to the period of its 
ultimate resurrection from the grave. With emotions of unfeigned 
pleasure, they anticipate the second coming of the Lord Jesus 
Christ from heaven, " Who shall change our vile body, that it may 
be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working 
whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." 

Sinners on the contrary, I refer principally to the gay and fashion- 
able, the dissipated and the voluptuous, the freethinking and skep- 



313 



tical ; sinner? are perpetually devising new methods of adorning 
their persons, of pampering their appetites, or ministering to their 
more sensual indulgencies. With them, the body is every thing. 
It is nursed with the utmost care. It is gratified in all its natural 
passions and propensities, It is literally idolized. But after its 
death, they affect to think and to talk about it, with philosophick 
calmness ; to cast it off as an old garment no longer worthy the 
supervision of its owner, as a fetid mass of filth and corruption 
rapidly incorporating with the earth as it was, and as no more 
susceptible of new life and activity, than as the particles of a de- 
cayed vegetable may reappear in the flowers of the garden, or the 
green herbage of the field. But to persons of this description, 
persons thus arrogantly bold and free in denying the truth of God's 
most holy word, I present with confidence the question originally 
propounded to King Agrippa, " Why should it be thought a thing 
incredible with you, that God should raise the dead'" 

Let us examine the subject with reference to the divine power. 
We know from the nature of things, that effects must be traced to 
their causes, and surveying the earth we inhabit, with the broad 
expanse of heaven, sparkling with innumerable orbs of light, with 
brilliants more beautiful than the gems of the East, the conclusion 
is irresistibly forced upon the mind, that there must have been some 
original, self-existent cause of all this handiwork, this wonderful 
mechanism surpassing all the ingenuity of man to fathom, much 
more to imitate. And having recourse to God, we almost intui- 
tively pronounce of him, that he hath created and formed it; that 
he hath set his broad seal upon the face of the universe, giving 
laws to matter and to motion, and so constructing the wheels of 
nature, that they continue to roll along unimpaired by friction, and 
unwasted by years. We pronounce of him, that he has created 
and formed these bodies of ours, so curiously wrought, so inextri- 
cably woven together in their parts, that no artist can rival the 
workmanship, and breathe into the nostrils of the most beautiful 
waxen image, the breath of life, 

Ask your own consciences then, ye who are disposed to decry 
the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, ask your own con- 
sciences, if a Being thus magnificent in design, and omnipotent in 
execution cannot recompose what he alone has permitted to de- 
compose: cannot redeem, from the dust of death, that life of the 

2 S 



314 



body, which his own plastick word first taught to play in ourlung% 
to dance through our veins, and throb around our hearts. You 
might as well with Berkeley deny all matter, and with Priestly all 
spirit. You might as well, with the fool in the scriptures, deny 
that there is a God, ay or a man that is born or a man that is dead. 
For once admit, that there is a power to make alive, and the infer- 
ence is not to be resisted, that the same power can make alive again.. 
In the interim, I care not where the soul is, where the body is. 
He, who originally joined them together, can join them anew. 
The labour is not more onerous, the manner more intricate or em- 
barrasing. To found the universe includes the ability to regulate 
it. To do all things indeed, which in themselves do not involve a 
.manifest contradiction. 

Nor is it incredible, that God should be able to raise the dead, in 
consequence of any supposed difficulties thrown in the way, through 
the subtlety of physical or metaphysical research. The questions 
are as old as the writings of Paul, "How are the dead raised up? 
and with what body do they come?" And have men refined upon 
these, in the pride and folly of their hearts ? Have they shown, that 
our bodies are perpetually changing the particles of which they 
are composed ? Do they therefore ask, if the whole of those parti- 
cles are to be resuscitated, or only in part? Have they found out. 
that the very same materials may be transferred from one body to 
another, and do they therefore sneeringly inquire, in which of the 
bodies, each soul is to reappear at the resurrection ? Precisely as 
the Apostle himself put to silence the cavils of the Sadducees, I 
reply in the spirit of that faith, which cometh by hearing and not 
by sight, " God will give it a body as it shall please him, and to 
every" soul its u own body." How, I neither know nor care. It 
will be done wisely and well, and that is enough for me, and I 
should hope for you. When you can tell me, how all the fragrance 
of the rose and* the lily is at length locked up in their respective 
seeds to come forth again in their season, and scent with new odour 
the vernal breeze; when you can tell me, how two opposite minors 
can reflect intervening objects, multiplying them in an almost end- 
less extent, without any obstacle being offered to the repeated 
transmission to and fro of the rays of light; when you can solve 
all this, it will be time to solve the mystery of the resurrection, 
In the mean while, let the scriptures control your belief of the one. 



315 



as your senses indicate, without enabling you to account for, the 
phenomena of the other. Those scriptures, which assert of this 
mortal, " It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption : it is 
sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory : it is sown in weakness, it is 
raised in power : it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual 
body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body,'" 

Incredulity upon this subject may be further checked, by con- 
siderations derived from the analogy of nature. An analogy, which 
the great Apostle of the Gentiles did not deem it beneath the digni- 
ty of his office to adopt, in his argument to the Corinthians, remind- 
ing them of the well known fact, " that which thou sowest is not 
quickened, except it die." With the view then of comprehending 
the full force of his similitude, select an individual, if such a one 
could be found, entirely unacquainted with the operations of nature. 
Show him the seemingly perished acorn, and the human body actu- 
ally deprived of life. Explain to him, that after being deposited in 
the ground, they will in due time reappear, the one in the tall green 
oak, the other in the living man ; and as to a belief in either result, 
the smile and the feeling of incredulity will alike play upon his 
features, and occupy his mind. Conviction however will soon fol- 
low, as the vegetable process is commenced and unfolded, as it 
gradually advances to perfection. And can you show him, that 
this is the effect of the divine behest, "Let the earth bring forth 
grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after 
his kind whose seed is in itself, upon the earth?" He will have as 
little difficulty in crediting the same scriptures, where they assert^ 
Behold, I show you a mystery : We shall not all sleep, but we 
shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the 
last trump ; (for the trumpet shall sound ;) and the dead shall be 
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corrupti- 
ble must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immor- 
tality." To such an individual, there would be no greater miracle 
in the one case, than in the other. Our hearts may be slow to be- 
lieve, because they are familiar with the goodness of God in the 
yearly returns of seedtime and harvest. But to him, for the first 
time beholding the earth relaxing from the frost and snows of winter, 
and progressively assuming its green array and variegated tints, 
the wonder and astonishment would not be less effectual and sub- 
Aime, than if the graves were to be opened, and the dead of forgot- 



316 



ten ages be restored to life again. To him, the power of annually 
renewing the face of nature would be fully equivalent to the power 
of renewing, once for all, the slumbering clay of the universal 
dead ; no matter how distant the period ; no matter how many re- 
volving suns must first shed their enlivening rays, and brood as it 
were over the mansions of the tomb. 

Blessed however be God, the arguments already adduced upon 
this noble theme, the arguments derived from his acknowledged 
power and wisdom, and from the analogy of his own fair creation, 
only serve to prepare the mind for the more cordial reception of a 
truth, already recorded in the sacred volume, already demonstrated 
in Spirit and in power, already manifested in the eyes of numerous 
unexceptionable witnesses. Jesus Christ whose testimony, as the 
Redeemer of the world and the Saviour of sinners, is the spirit of 
prophecy, and the incontrovertible sanction of miracles; Jesus 
Christ, who was born into this vale of tears, who lived and died 
therein as a man liveth and dieth ; that same Jesus, whom the Jews 
crucified and slew, and who previously announced, " after three 
days I will rise again that same Jesus was " declared to be the Son 
of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the re- 
surrection from the dead.'" 

I design not, Brethren, on the present occasion to enter into the 
minute particulars of that stupendous event. They have been fre- 
quently rehearsed in your hearing. They must be familiar to your 
recollection, and to your hopes. And do you credit the siege of 
Troy because Homer sang; the voyage and exploits of iEneas, the 
remote ancestor of Rome, because Virgil tuned his Mantuanlyre? 
t)o you credit the existence and biographical details of heroes and 
statesmen, because Plutarch and Nepos wrote ? " Why then should 
it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the 
dead ?" Look at the testimony of poets and historians, conjectural 
for the most part, and often contradictory. And is this to be receiv- 
ed, while that of holy men of God, who spake as they were moved 
by the Holy Ghost, is to be discredited as romance, and rejected 
with disdain? Will you thus impugn and renounce the testimony 
of the Apostles and women, who were eyewitnesses to the fact of 
the resurrection; of disbelieving Thomas, who woula 1 not yield his 
assent, until he had thrust his hand into the side, and laid his fingers 
'in the print of the nails, yet appearing in the hands and feet of the 



317 



risen Jesus : of more than five hundred disciples, who saw him at 
once; of the select band of friends and companions, who having 
heard him speak for forty days, of things pertaining to the kingdom 
of God, were at length permitted to witness his glorious ascent into 
heaven; in a word, the testimony of disciples, who, in his hour of 
agony upon the cross, all forsook him and fled, fear blanching their 
cheeks, and terror striking through their hearts; and yet, when 
fully convinced of his having risen again, as he himself had said, 
of disciples, who thereafter rejoiced in the opportunity to lay down 
their lives in his service; rejoiced, in spite of martyrdom, presented 
in its most cruel forms, to receive its imperishable crown, as the 
noblest recompense for the zeal and alacrity, with which they 
preached Jesus and the resurrection ? 

Surely, Brethren, after perusing such brilliant testimony, they, 
who remain incredulous and unbelieving, must write falsehood upon 
every page of history, falsehood upon every thing, which their own 
eyes have not seen, which their own ears have not heard. I would 
sooner pronounce of the triumphs of Alexander, that they were fable ; 
of the brutal murder of Caesar at the base of Pompey's statue, that 
it was an idle tale; -ay, of the fate of Napoleon, that he died not, 
neither do his ashes repose amid the rocks of St. Helena. If evi- 
dence, so clear, so precise, so unequivocal and disinterested, is not 
to control the faith of man, then hath our great Creator left himself 
without a witness, when he would speak to his creatures; then hath 
he strangely foreclosed his power to teach and direct them, in their 
goings, with certainty as from him; then is that scripture remarka- 
bly fulfilled in our age, which saith, " If they hear not Moses and the 
prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one should rise 
from the dead." 

The proofs of our Saviour's resurrection are however too plain 
and manifest to admit of such a dilemma, in the apprehension of far 
the larger proportion of Christendom. The strong reasons of infi- 
delity are here imbecile and powerless as the club of a dead Her- 
cules. Christians ever have believed, they ever will continue to 
believe, those proofs to the end of time. And thus believing, thus 
confident, as to the Captain of their salvation, the text addresses 
itself to them, from the mouth of an Apostle, with peculiar force and 
emphasis; " Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, 
that God should raise the dead ?" 



•318 



Yes, Brethren, with respect to those frail and perishing bodies 
which you now inhabit, if Christ, who was made like unto us in all 
things, and 66 was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without 
sin;" if his human soul has rejoined his human body; if he has be- 
come the first fruit of the tomb ; why, at some far distant day, and 
in God's own good time, have ye not the strongest grounds to be- 
lieve, that ye will experience the like glorious change, the like glo- 
rious reanimation from the dust of death? In addition to what has 
been already recited, how express and imperative are those words 
of scripture, " Since by man came death, by man came also the 
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ 
shall all be made alive." " Jesus said, I am the resurrection, and 
the life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
live: And whosoever liveth, and believeth in me, shall never die." 
Do ye not then place full faith and confidence in these declarations? 
In the light of Christ's revival, do ye not regard them, as yea and 
amen, as truths against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, 
which God's own puissant arm will accomplish in the face of an 
assembled universe? Ye do. It would be useless to suspend my 
voice for a reply. Ye know, that " if we believe that Jesus died, 
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God 
bring with him." With such of your number, as are mourners in 
Zion, how has the consciousness of this reviving doctrine poured its 
assuasive balm into your anguished souls, when the trembling hand 
has closed the eyelids of your little ones; when ye have printed the 
final kiss upon their pallid cheeks, and wept your last adieu; when 
parental arms, stiffened by the frost of death, have ceased to fold 
you within the fond caress; when the wife of your bosom, or the 
husband of your love, breathes not, speaks not, save as imagination 
lends to the sundered lips the power of apostrophizing after the 
manner of Job, "I have said to corruption, Thou art my father; to 
the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister." Dismal indeed 
would be the house of mourning, more dismal still the place of se- 
pulture, were it not for some soft and soothing voice, inaudibly 
whispering to the heart of surviving friends, we shall meet again, 
we shall meet to part no more. It is this, that cheers the loneliness 
of a bereaved home. It is this, that sprinkles the grave with dia- 
monds, which still emit their lustre in the midst of its darkest gloom 
It is the hope of a joyful resurrection, that disarms the king of ter- 



319 



tors of his power to annoy; that enables all the wise and good to 
exclaim in their departing hour, " O death, where is thy sting? O 
grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the 
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God which giveth us 
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 

And if these, Brethren, are the consolations, these the anticipa- 
tions while here below, what must be the reality ? I have somewhere 
seen a picture representing a pious family, on the morn of the resur- 
rection. The stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the 
sepulchre. Its long slumbering tenants have been roused by the 
sound of the last trump. Their dust has been revived. The gar- 
ments of mortality have been left behind them. They burst forth 
at once into new life and vigour. There rises the father surround- 
ed by the elder children, whom he had brought up in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord ; there, the mother, with her smiling 
babes, still fondly clinging to the maternal arms. Serene and holy 
joy pervades every countenance. The look of mutual recognition 
has already passed, and all eyes are intently gazing up on high, 
whence also they look for the Lord Jesus Christ. But oh, what is 
a painters skill, compared with the wonder working skill of God 1 
What the most vivid sketch and colouring of his pencil, compared 
with that radiance from the throne of glory, which shall hereafter 
visit the tomb of the righteous ? I have thought of the pale, soften- 
ed hues of the evening; of the contrast furnished by the full-orbed 
splendour of the meridian sun. But it cannot, will not do. There 
is nothing seen on earth, or in the skies, that can impart the faintest 
conception of the triumphant resurrection of the just, springing 
forth to meet their Saviour, at his coming, with all the holy angels 
with him; springing forth to be ravished by his love, and to bask 
forever beneath the sunshine of his smiles. The very thought is 
rapture, and the fruition itself must be joy unspeakable and full of 
glory. 

But alas, Brethren, what other sounds are those, which succeed 
to the transports of this blissful scene ? The dead in Christ have 
risen first, and with them which were alive and remained, they have 
been caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 
And now comes, dreadful to think upon, more dreadful to realize, 
now comes the resurrection of the wicked. I have seen no picture 
attempting to imbouy the features of this appalling event., I can 



320 



from this source derive no aid in endeavouring to seize its more 
prominent traits, and describe the anguish, the horrour, the unutter- 
able despair, which shall then fasten upon the countenance of the 
ungodly and the sinner. 1 only know, that the dead, small and 
great, shall stand before God, and that all descriptions and classes 
of men will be there, to be judged out of those things, which are 
written in the books according to their works. I only know of them, 
that fear not God, and obey not the gospel of his Son, that in this 
tremendous hour, they shall " say to the mountains and rocks, Fall 
on us, and hide us from the face of Him, that sitteth on the throne , 
and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is 
come." I only know, that vain will be their efforts at concealment, 
vain their loudest, their most plaintive cries for mercy. No matter, 
if they once numbered beloved friends and relatives among the pi- 
ous; they will now <Jeserithem. No matter, if the arms of the com= 
passionate Jesus were once widely expanded to receive them ; his 
terrible voice will now pronounce the equally terrible sentence, 
" Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
devil and his angels." No matter, if God himself was once unwil- 
ling that they should perish ; he will now be unto them a God of con- 
suming fire; he will cast them, as he hath said, where they " shall 
have their part in the lake which burnetii with fire and brimstone : 
which is the second death." Is not this enough to satisfy our cu- 
riosity? Is it not enough to induce us to work out our salvation 
with fear and trembling, in order that we may escape this scene of 
terror and amazement? The doctrine of the resurrection, you per- 
ceive, has its dark and dismal, as well as its bright and joyous side. 
Will ye not profit by the disclosure? When your greatest bane is 
before you, will ye not strive to avoid it? When its heavenly anti- 
dote, will ye not embrace it, with a true heart in full assurance of 
hope ? Oh that the sinner might be prevailed upon to pause and 
think, ere it be too late. No longer would the grave present the 
most revolting spectacle on which the mind can dwell. It would 
yield to that, which is to follow the grave and the resurrection. It 
would yield to that punishment^ which God hath reserved "against 
the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." 

Weigh it then, ye who are yet in the number of the careless and 
impenitent, weigh it against all the combined pleasures of sin. What 
are they in their best estate? Passing shadows, without substance 



•or reality; gay and gilded lures, which cheat the soul, with delusive 
promises, only to bring it to a fearful end ; fond and foolish dreams, 
which produce a feverish excitement in the brain, during the mid- 
night hours of darkness and illusion, only to vanish, at the dawn 
of day before the lighted torch of truth. And for these, are ye wil- 
ling to hazard your immortal interests? For these, are ye willing 
to live in jeopardy every hour, to die in terror, and rise again in 
consternation and despair? It must not, would to God, that ye 
might say, it shall not be. How changed would be your thoughts ! 
How radically changed the current of your affections! Ye would 
determine to have nothing more to do with sin. Ye would shun it 
as a poison, corrosive to the taste, withering and deadly to the frame. 

Repentance would be yours. Sorely would ye lament the cor- 
ruption of your hearts, and the iniquity of your lives. Each act of 
guilt would stand out against you, prominent as the sun in the hea- 
vens. Ye would pest not, neither day nor night, until a spiritual 
resurrection should ensue, that would effectually relieve you from 
the whole body of sin and death. Faith would be yours. To Him, 
who bruised the serpent's head, and this day triumphed over the last 
enemy, ye would look with more of love and tenderness, of hope and 
confidence, than ever swayed the heart of a maiden, when she put 
on her ornaments, and decked herself for the bridal day. In your 
eyes, he would be altogether lovely and of good report, the chiefest 
often thousand. Ye would hail him as your Saviour and your 
King, the Redeemer of your souls and the Monarch of your hearts. 
Obedience would be yours. Nothing irksome would there be in th& 
path of duty. Nothing tedious or offensive in the beauty of holi- 
ness. Did he call you to the Church purchased by his blood? Ye 
would fly with the celerity of doves to their windows. Did he invite 
you to the banquet of his love? Ye would hasten to receive the 
precious memorial of his broken flesh and bleeding veins. Ye would 
rejoice and be glad in every opportunity to feed upon him in youF 
hearts by faith, with thanksgiving. 

Yes, Brethren, ye would do all this with alacrity and joy. Ye 
would thus pass from death unto life. And what would be the con- 
sequence, the consequence of sin being dethroned from its empire 
and dominion over you, and Christ being highly exalted and glorifi- 
ed in its room? Not one sigh of regret would escape your lips. Not 
one pang of remorse would ruffle the calmness and serenity of your 

2 T 



^bosoffls. Your days would be crowned with blessings, and you f 
nights with repose. Your conversation would be in heaven. Ye 
would have peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. All the days of your 
appointed time, would ye wait with patience, until your last great 
change should come. Do you now fear death 9 It would lose all its 
terrors in your exulting eye ; its hard features and iron brow would 
contract the velvet smoothness of the eider's down. It would be 
regarded as your passport to the place, where Jesus lay ; the refuge 
of a weary pilgrim toiling on the road to heaven, and panting for 
eternal life. Do ye now fear the resurrection from the dead! It 
would become the subject of unceasing thankfulness and praise 
The eye of faith would enable you to penetrate,- in some small de- 
gree, the grandeur and sublimity of that triumphant sequel to the 
separate existence of the long imprisoned body and soul. Ye would 
be enamoured with, the thought of being then permitted to meet the 
Lord of your life, and would be induced to prepare yourselves, yet 
more and more, for the high honour of first beholding, and being 
forever after satisfied with his likeness. 

I could enlarge. But if we have a just sense of Our present 
good and everlasting peace, enough has been urged, on this joyous 
anniversary of our Saviour's resurrection, to prevail with every 
soul of man to determine? that the time past of his life has been 
sufficient to have wrought the will of the Gentiles. No longer will 
he be tempted to assert, that it is a thing incredible with him, that 
God should raise the dead. No longer, in pit)*- and compassion to 
his own precious and immortal soul, will he delay the work of re- 
pentance, the work of faith, the work of obedience. No longer 
will he refuse to commemorate, with fervid love and intense emo- 
tions of gratitude, the merits and the sacrifice of his blessed Re- 
deemer; when, in addition to the unrivalled acts of benevolence 
and grace, which he performed throughout the period, in which 
he came to visit as in great humility; when, in addition to all 
these, 

41 The graves of all his saints he blessed 

" when in the grave he lay ; 
* And, rising thence, their hopes he raised 

'Ho everlasting day V* 



323 



SERMON XXVII. 

acts xvii. 11, 

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they re* 
cehed the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scrip' 
tures daily, whether those things were so. 

THESSALONICA and Berea were two cities of Macedon, 
visited by St. Paul, during one of the missionary tours undertaken 
by him, in obedience to the command of Christ, and for the pur- 
pose of evangelizing the world. At the former, he had entered the 
synagogue of the Jews, and preached in his usually bold and in- 
trepid manner the leading doctrines of the cross; and although 
" some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and 
of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women 
not a few yet the greater number of " the Jews, which believed 
not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the 
baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an up- 
roar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them 
out to the people." Whereupon the converted brethren justly 
alarmed for the safety of the Apostles, sent them away by night to 
Berea. There also upon their arrival, they immediately repaired 
to the synagogue of the Jews, and were so cordially received, that 
the inspired historian has not hesitated to pronounce upon the Be- 
reans the ever to be remembered panegyrick, "These were more 
noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word 
with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily, wheth- 
er those things were so. 5 ' 

On the comparison here instituted, I have little to olfer. Those 
rival cities have long since vanished from the face of the earth. 
Their inhabitants have gone to their long account, and character 
apart, it would be useless to attempt exciting your sympathies in 
favour of the one, or your indignation in prejudice of the other. 
Not so however, in relation to the grounds of that comparison. 
Embracing alike the spirit in which the word of life was received^ 



324 

and the manner in which it was improved, they furnish a theme- 
worthy of all acceptation; they present on the one side a model for 
the imitation of Christian men, in praise of which your time may 
well be occupied, your serious and devout attention confidentl)' 
challenged. 

Let me remind you then, Brethren, in the first place, of the so- 
licitude manifested by the Bereans to learn the tenour of the Apos« 
tie's doctrine. Residing in a remote part of Greece, far from the, 
scene of our Saviour's ministry, and entirely ignorant of the won- 
derful truths disclosed by him; it redounded greatly to their credit,, 
that St. Paul found himself at once surrounded by a numerous and 
attentive audience. # You know, how it is in modern times^ even in 
our own happy conntiy ; here, where the sound of the Gospel ha? 
penetrated far and near; where circling sabbaths bless our eyes, 
approved by custom, and sanctioned by publick law; where temples 
of the living God have been reared by the hands, and hallowed by 
the hearts of Christians. You know, how it is with vast numbers 
of oar countrymen. They will not care to avow it. They will 
even profess to scorn the imputation. But in point of fact, the gos=- 
pel has indeed become to them, as a tale of other times. It has^ 
lost the charm of noveltj^. It has incurred with them the demerit 
of being old, worn out, and threadbare. They come not to listen 
to its sacred truths. If an accurate census could* be taken, I am 
perfectly convinced in my own mind, that the numbers to be found 
in all the Churches of the land, upon each sabbath of the year, 
would not amount to the half of our population. The excuses for 
non-attendance are as numerous as the stars in the firmament, and 
in too many instances as idle and fallacious, tis they are numerous. 
Nothing scarcely will justify a man to his conscience for neglect- 
ing his ordinary business. But to the neglect of that business, 
which should ever be first and foremost in his thoughts; which is 
to determine the condition of his soul forever and ever; you will 
find the same conscience completely at ease in Zion, completely 
dead and disaffected, full of self-complacency, and unsusceptible 
of the slightest pang of compunction. 

But when Paul went to Berea and preached, I remark no such 
excuses, no such preference of temporal to eternal interests. Al- 
though he arrived in the night, the Jewish synagogue was immedi- 
ately crowded with hearers of every description, men and wornec* 



325 



bond and free, Jews and Gentiles. All came to do him reverence, 
to hang upon the words of his mouth, and imbibe the dew of his 
doctrine. O ye Christians of my country! spread over a land en- 
riched by the smiles, and crowned with the blessings of Providence, 
how much were ye excelled in grace and devotion by those simple, 
unenlightened hearers, and how little in comparison do ye deserve 
to be weekly summoned to the house of your God, and faithfully 
instructed in the right way, that leadeth to everlasting life. At 
the call of business or of pleasure, ye can forget the mighty God, 
who saves. Ye can take your ease; ye can indulge in profane 
amusements ; ye can commence your journeys on the day of sacred 
rest, at the very moment, when ye should repair to your posts in 
Zion, when ye should worship the Lord God of your fathers, and 
u listen to your duty with honest hearts in order to practise it." 
Where is thy blush, O Shame? Where is thy conscience, O Sinner? 
They neither mantle thy cheek, nor rend thy soul. The Lord hath 
spoken, rising up early and speaking ; but ye hear not. He hath 
called; but ye answer not. "Oh that my head were waters, and 
mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for 
the slain of the daughter of my people !" 

In the second place, Brethren, those Bereans are commended by 
the historian, because when listening to the strange . things which 
came to their ears, 4< they received the word with all readiness of 
mind.'" Many of them were Jews, who, before they could believe, 
must first renounce all the established rites and ceremonies, all the 
cherished hopes and predilections of their ancestors. Many of them 
were heathen, who had been accustomed, from their earliest in- 
fancy, to believe in God's many and Lord's many, and to esteem it 
the height of impiety to limit the Godhead to the power and digni- 
ty, the majesty and glory, of the only wise and true God, proclaim- 
ed in the scriptures. And yet, when Paul preached, they waived 
all the prejudices connected with their birth and education j they 
composed their persons in the attitude of strict attention; they gave 
earnest heed to the inspiration of his lips ; they determined to hear 
with seriousness, and judge with candour. There were no triflers 
there; no mere verbal criticks; no slaves to inveterate habits or 
preposterous principles. But when you come to analyze the com- 
ponent parts of a modern congregation, of those who, from some 
motive or other, deign to appear in the courts of the house of their 



326 



God; how many are there, who give ample evidence of the utmost 
indifference to the things which belong to their everlasting peace j 
how many come to see and to be seen, to sport a feather and ex- 
change a smile ; how many to lament the prolixity of the service, 
the wire-drawn pleadings of the pulpit, the intolerable tedium ac- 
companying a confinement of two long and lingering hours to per- 
formances, more nearly allied than any others in this life, to the 
devotional exercises and enjoyments of the life to come. 

These are sad and melancholy truths. They stand out in far too 
bold relief, in the existing era of the Christian Church, and should 
cover many heads with shame and confusion of face. We can give 
ear to forensick eloquence. We can become deeply enamoured with 
popular harangues. Our attention can be chained down by the 
mere actor reciting the language of fiction. But to subjects in- 
volving the highest .interests of a rational and immortal being, we 
are extremely prone to address ourselves, with the impatience of a 
prisoner, or the insensibility of a stoick. To the worldly-minded, 
eternity contrasted with time fades away into a thing of naught; its 
hell has no terrors; its heaven has no charms. We hear of them 
as Ave list to the story of Arctick skies and Asiatick suns, too dis- 
tant to chill with their snows, or enliven with their warmth. Would 
to God, that we might become as noble, as devout, as serious and 
teachable, as the hearers of Berea. They received the word of God 
with all readiness of mind. They perceived its truth, and they 
felt its commanding energy. Paul had no occasion to rebuke the 
restless, to rouse the slumberer, to remonstrate with the dull of 
hearing, to deplore the vacancy of their thoughts, or the hardness of 
their hearts. But they listened with wonder and delight. They 
opened their minds to his instruction, as the dry earth her thirsty 
bosom to the genial dew and refreshing shower. In that large as- 
sembly, all eyes were drawn, all ears were attracted to the preach- 
er. He gave them bread from heaven, and this best of food was 
sweet to their taste. The doctrine was new; the ideas it inspired 
were new; all their prior systems, whether divine or profane, were 
materially affected by it; and still, they could successfully contend 
with the native bias of their country, and the deplorable ignorance 
of their minds. Before wc can reject the counsels of God, we must 
contrive to unlearn all that we have previously learnt, in infancy 
and youth, from pious friends and beloved relatives; all that the 



327 



wise have honoured, and the good regarded, as venerable, and sa- 
cred, and divine. We must become lured by a world, whose princi- 
ples are at war with the moral sense ; inveigled by a system of phi- 
losophy, whose adherents have ever failed to triumph, when time 
was about to close, and eternity eyed them in the face. How much 
more noble then were the converts of the text ! How much more 
entitled to influence our conduct, by the excellency of their spirit, 
and the meritorious character of their example ! 

Especially, when we reflect, in the third place, that there was 
nothing rash or precipitate in the manner, in which they investiga- 
ted the doctrines of the cross, and arrived at the conviction of their 
truth. It was not owing to the person of the Apostle: For it was 
mean and contemptible. It was not by the graceful flow and ca- 
dence of his periods, by the brilliancy or the ingenuity of his argu- 
ments : For this is his own remark, M My speech and my preaching 
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration 
of the Spirit and of power." He fairly, not sophistically, t{ reasoned 
with them out of the scriptures; opening and alleging that Christ 
must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that 
this Jesus, whom he preached unto them, was Christ;" was verily 
and indeed the Messiah foretold by the prophets, and the Saviour 
of the world. And did they immediately yield their belief? Did 
they, from the mere impulse of the moment, blindly accede to his 
premises, and as blindly adopt his conclusions? No, no such thing: 
After they heard, they reflected. Deliberation preceded rather 
than succeeded the assent of their minds. It is recorded to their 
praise, that they " searched the scriptures daily, whether those 
things were so." 

The faith of some men is of that large, expansive kind, some 
would call it narrow and contracted, that, to the idol of their idola- 
try, they are e ver ready to sacrifice their own judgment, and mould 
their own opinions in strict conformity with his. But the Bereans 
pursued a different course. The Jews among them, in particular, 
searched for themselves those scriptures of the old testament to 
which Paul appealed, and only confided in his doctrines, when they 
discerned their perfect coincidence with the sure word of prophecy, 
so long familiar to their nation, as the divine rule of their faith and 
practice. And this is the manner in which we should always- 
arrive at the knowledge of the truth. I have no confidence in a 



328 

religion received upon naked assertion, and having for its sole au- 
thority the dictum of any man or set of men. We must examine 
for ourselves. We must u prove all things," and " hold fast that which 
is good;" that which will stand the test of free and enlightened in* 
quiry If we cannot give a reason for the faith, that is in us, it is 
of no more personal benefit, than the creed of a Mussulman, or the 
idolatry of a Brahmin. 

Preachers there are, who seem to think, that they have a kind of 
prescriptive right to control the consciences of their hearers, and 
who are not slow in manifesting their indignation, whenever theii* 
sentiments are opposed, or their infallibility questioned. But it 
becomes us better to tell you, Brethren, that 4£ we preach not our- 
selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord that such and such are the 
weighty truths of scripture, demanding from you patient and labori- 
ous investigation. An investigation, that you should most cheer- 
fully accord. Every sabbath you should imitate the conduct of the 
Bereans. You should not merely treasure up in the memory all 
that you hear; but when you retire to your several homes, there is a 
standard to which you should refer. To the bible as to an infalli- 
ble test, you should submit every principle, every argument, that 
may wear the appearance of novelty, of errour, or even of truth. 
Implicit faith may be the attribute of fools or of knaves ; but honest 
and judicious inquirers must think and deliberate for themselves,, 
It can do them no harm. All indeed that I am anxious for, in my 
humble efforts to disseminate the knowledge of heavenly things, is 
to produce that spirit, which so many want, the spirit of eager ex- 
amination and accurate research. If the bible will not endure this 
ordeal, in the name of reason and common sense give it up, or at 
least reduce it to a level with the best treatises upon ethicks and 
casuistry. But not before, not before you have gone over a tho- 
rough and minute survey of the grounds, external and internal, on 
which it claims to be divine, the gift of God, and the only medium of 
that faith and practice, which terminate in life eternal. In all such 
cases, I have no apprehension for the result. Truth is too powerful 
and irresistible, not to produce conviction, wherever there are sin- 
cerity of purpose and humility of temper to guide the inquirer. I 
ask no more of the proudest infidel than this, that he should for once 
lay aside his pride and his prejudice, and honestly though rigidly 
scrutinize the religion he is now so fond of condemning, with as 



329 



little real knowledge of its pretensions and principles, as the child 
unborn. The daily searching of the scriptures, on the part of the 
Bereans, eminently contributed to remove the veil from their eyes, 
to bring them out of darkness into marvellous light, and to make 
them " wise unto salvation. 1 ' 

I consider it, in the fourth place, to have been highly expedient 
and praiseworthy, because of the infinite value and importance of 
the doctrines, which those scriptures disclose. To all other sub- 
jects, there is a limit imposed by Providence, and ratified by the 
undeviating operations of nature. The grass is hardly green, be- 
fore it is dried up and withered; the fine gold grows dim with age; 
and the mortality of man is inscribed upon every clod of the valley, 
and every wave of the sea. But where will you find a limit to the 
progress of revealed truth? It disdains the rivalry of this frail world 
of ours. It turns its ardent gaze, it wings its upward flight to 
heaven, and even there exists immortal as its Author, and enduring 
as eternity itself. If it only described the best mode of passing 
the days of your pilgrimage in this brief and transient scene, the 
folly and presumption of rejecting it might be forgiven. Ye might 
with some show of plausibility prefer another faith, and with impu- 
nity pluck whatsoever forbidden fruit your eyes desired, or the in- 
firmity of your appetites craved. But as it is, with its authenticity 
brought home to our conviction by the inward testimony of the 
conscience, presaging future indignation and wrath to the guilty; 
future glory and honour, and immortality to the righteous; how 
greatly is the lustre of every earthly attraction diminished by the 
comparison; how utterly senseless and inexcusable are all those 
pursuits, which have not religion for their basis, and the house not 
made with hands, which is eternal in the heavens, for their final 
home. By the mouth of Christ, the wealth of the world has been 
pronounced, but a poor and wretched substitute. Our own hearts 
have experienced, when rifled of their long loved inmates by the 
destroyer's hand, that no kindred ties, no warmth of kindred affec- 
tion can pretend to compensate for the absence of vital faith and 
holiness in the soul. 

I will even approach that engrossing theme, which now agitates 
every bosom, which constitutes the fruitful source of innumerable 
hopes and fears, and seriously demand, What advantage will it prove 
to you, whether your own. or the favourite of another, obtains a 

3 U 



330 



ii nation's proudest honours, in comparison of that comprehensive 
knowledge of the scriptures, which results in heartfelt love to God 
and man? I am not so utterly senseless and absurd as to deny, 
that we ought to take a warm interest in the welfare and prosperity 
of the land we inhabit, in the continued purity of its institutions, 
and the fidelity of its publick servants. But that kind of party spirit, 
which now rages from one extremity of the union to the other, must 
be deeply deplored by every sincere and patriotick friend of his 
country. It sets at defiance the laws of honour and decorum, of 
reason and truth, of virtue and religion. It plants a dagger in hands 
once accustomed to grasp each other with manly confidence, and 
threatens to dissolve the very cement of society. I have indeed 
heard, and have no doubt that many persons really delude them- 
selves with the idea, that the continuance of our national liberties 
materially depends upon the issue of the existing contest. 

But believe me, Brethren, they, who some hundred years hence 
are destined to tread upon our ashes, will be just as happy, and 
free, and prosperous, as we are. The smiles of heaven are so ob- 
viously beaming upon our favoured land, that, by no probable folly 
or misconduct of the rulers or the ruled, can its growth and pros- 
perity be essentially endangered. Its march is onward and for- 
ward, and he, who would seek to retard the revolving wheels of its 
glory, might as well attempt to blow out the sun, or unsettle the 
foundations of the great deep. Admitting however that I should 
prove mistaken in this conjecture, what will it be to us, or to our 
children, one hundred years hence, whether the present struggle 
terminates in our personal triumph or defeat ? What will it not be, 
if instead of devoting all our time, and thoughts, and talents, to 
elevate to office the man of our choice, we employ the larger propor- 
tion in unwearied efforts to elevate our own precious and immortal 
souls to those blissful regions, where such crowns of glory will 
encircle every brow, that in the contrast the honours and diadems 
of this world are no better than the toys and triumphs of an hour? 

I should not have touched upon this subject, knowing the extra- 
ordinary excitement which prevails, did I not conscientiously be- 
lieve, that party spirit, when carried to its present enormous ex- 
cess, is not merely a national evil, but a glaring vice; that it is 
offensive in the sight of God, and therefore as evidently requiring 
to be discountenanced from the pulpites intemperance, or gluttony. 



331 



«r fraud, or any other moral nuisance, including religious contro- 
versies, which, as generally conducted, bear perhaps the strongest 
affinity to political strife and rancour. The remedy is to be found 
in more anxious endeavours to profit by the inspired declaration, 

the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, 
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no 
law." We are indeed told upon high authority, that " the wrath of 
man worketh not the righteousness of God ;" and seriously would 
I recommend moderation to all men, a more calm and dispassion- 
ate mode of determining what, it must be conceded, are for the 
most part honest differences of opinion. As they encroach far too 
much upon the few and fleeting moments allotted us to prepare for 
eternity, it would not be likely to disturb our dying pillow with a 
thorn, if, after the example of theBereans, we gave the more diligent 
attention to the daily searching and study of the holy scriptures. 

These, I repeat, are able to make us wise unto salvation. They 
alone through Christ confer this inestimable benefit on our perish- 
ing race, and to discard them for any other object, as it is necessa- 
rily temporal and of minor importance, argues something more 
than an errour in judgment. It betrays a criminal indifference to 
our future happiness. It is a species of spiritual suicide, over 
which, they will have ample cause to weep and lament, who com- 
mit it, heedless of the threats and the promises conve} r ed in the 
gospel of Christ. That precious gospel, which to the moral world 
is as the sun to the natural, imparting light and heat, the illumina- 
tion of the Spirit, and the undying flame of pure and undefiled re- 
ligion. To die happy, we must live soberly, righteously, and godly 
in this present world. To live thus, we must make the bible the 
repository of our faith, and the manual of our practice. To be- 
come versed in literaturs or the arts, in law or in medicine, we 
must perseveringly read and faithfully treasure up the fruits of our 
reading. And what is there true is even more so in the nobler 
profession. As Christians, we must study to make ourselves ap- 
proved of God, by copious draughts imbibed at the fountain of his 
wisdom and grace. He " has caused all holy scriptures to be writ- 
ten for our learning," and we must " in such wise hear them, read^ 
mark, learn, and inwardly digest them," that our profiting may ap- 
pear; that our faith may be strong, our repentance sincere, our 
obedience perfect, and our lives holy and irreproveable in his sight. 



332 



Less than this will not avail; no more avail than it will to skim 
the surface without exerting ourselves to penetrate the depths of 
science. 

Oh then that I might prevail upon you to turn your thoughts 
more seriously and intently upon heavenly things; this day prevail 
upon you to commence with persevering ardour the perusal of the 
bible, and particularly of that gospel of Christ, which is solemnly 
urged upon your attention as " the power of God unto salvation to 
every one that believeth." There is but a little while before all 
opportunity to improve by it will be circumscribed by the grave 
whither ye go. As to you, its lids will then be closed, its inspira- 
tion sealed. And can ye bear to think of descending into that grave 
unaccompanied by its light, and unreformed by its spirit? The 
physical courage may be yours : For the worm will there feed upon 
you unnoticed and^unfeit. It can inflict no painful wound upon 
your mortal relicks. But there is another grave, the grave of the 
soul! There is another worm, the worm that dieth not'. And can 
ye without emotion endure the idea of being everlastingly vexed by 
them? Not if ye have ever dwelt with seriousness upon those 
pages, which describe the terrible effects of the divine displeasure 
hereafter to be poured out upon the ungodly and the sinner. Not 
if ye have ever beheld, how piteously the wicked man upon a dying 
bed cries out in the anguish of his soul, and struggles hard to es- 
cape what he once fondly imagined to be the mere colouring and 
embellishment of priestcraft. No, no, if ye have been made ac- 
quainted with these things, it is not in nature,it is not in philosophy 
to stand upon the brink, and not shudder at the fatal necessity of 
leaping the precipice, whose foundations are based in perdition. 

Save yourselves therefore, I once more conjure you, Brethren, 
save yourselves from the present dread, and the future experience 
of this awful catastrophe. The method is clearly inscribed on the 
page of inspiration. Receive ye the word of life with all readi- 
ness of mind. Search ye the scriptures daily whether those things 
are so. Ye will not have, as the Bereans had, an inspired penman 
to record and transmit your praises to succeeding times. But like 
them, ye will have what is far better, the graces of a new creature 
in Christ Jesus while ye live, and the testimony of a good con^ 
science, of a lively faith, and of a certain hope, when ye come to 
die. All which, may God of his infinite mercy grant; may his 



333 



.ministering angels watch over and protect you throughout your 
present warfare and your last extremity; " in the union of the holy 
Jesus, and in the love of God, and in the communion of all the 
saints^ may your souls be presented," at the tribunal of eternal 
mercy, u blameless, and entirely pardoned, and thoroughly washed, 
through Jesus Christ our Lord," Amen. 



SERMON XXVIII. 

REVELATIONS ii. 4. 

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee. 

IT is probably known to you, Brethren, that the last human 
being to whom our blessed Saviour condescended to speak was 
the beloved disciple John, at that time residing in the island of Pat- 
mos, and fast verging to the close of a long and weary life. It was 
many years after the resurrection; many years after our crucified 
Lord had ascended into heaven, and was forever sat down at the 
right hand of God. Among other incidents connected with this 
memorable event, the Apostle informs us, "I was in the Spirit on 
the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 
saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.^ — And I turn- 
ed to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw — 
one like unto the Son of man. — His head and his hairs were white 
like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; — ■ 
and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And 
when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right 
hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; lam the first and the 
last; I am he that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive 
forevermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write 
the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the 
things which shall be hereafter.— Unto the angel of the Church of 
Ephesus, write; — I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy pa- 
tience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou 



334 



hast tried them which say they are Apostles, and are not, and hast 
found them liars : And hast borne, and hast patience ; and for my 
name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless 
I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first 
love." 

Yes, Brethren, such were the words, which our Saviour Christ 
dictated to the holy Apostle, and directed to be communicated by 
him to the angel or bishop of one of the seven Churches of Asia 
Minor. They blend together the accents of praise and of censure. 
Commendation is bestowed where it was due, and reproach, where 
the abandonment of his first love prevailed to cool the ardour of 
primitive piety; to neutralize the faith, and adulterate the works 
of the highest ecclesiastick, and probably of all the Christians of 
Ephesus. And that same oversight, which our gracious Redeemer 
then exerted in relation to his visible Church, he still exercises 
over every part of the spiritual vineyard, which his own right hand 
hath planted within the precincts of time. No voice indeed is heard, 
no sound of approbation, no murmur of disappointed love. The 
web of prophecy has been woven. The lips, which spake as nev- 
er man spake, have ceased to move. The stream, which now es- 
capes from the fountain of divine instruction, flows in a channel 
worn smooth by the attrition of ages, and is therefore unaccompa- 
nied by a " voice as the sound of many waters." 

But what is inaudible to the ear may be whispered to the con- 
science. What is not seen by the eye, the imagination may learn 
to realize. There is not one emotion of our hearts, not one senti- 
ment of our souls; but is clearly perceived and understood by that 
Jesus, with whom we have to do. He searches by his Spirit the 
deep things of man. He needeth not that any man should tell him. 
Highly exalted above all principalities and powers, he reads the 
thoughts, he scrutinizes the actions of his people. Are we cold, and 
dead, and palsied in our affection towards him? Conscience is the 
monitor, with which he vexes the soul. Have we never enlisted in 
his service, or having enlisted, have we forsaken our first love? 
Conscience is the medium, through which he troubles the sinner, 
and revives in his hearing the memorable words, " I have some- 
what against thee." You cannot refuse to listen to its rebukes. 
You cannot wholly silence its clamour. By its still small voice,, 
the man Christ Jesus though dead yet speaketh, speaketh from 



335 



heaven, where he is alive again. Let us attend to it then, as to a 
voice of instruction, of reproof, of edification. With breathless 
anxiety, Jet us catch its purport, and, suspending all other intents 
of the mind, imagine the tenour of those admonitions, he would im- 
part, wereiie visibly present to reckon up in order the long cata- 
logue of our errours, as men, as labourers in his vineyard, as proba- 
tioners for eternity. 

1 apprehend, Brethren, that I shall not be accused of deviating 
widely from the genuine spirit and principles of Christian charity, 
when I conjecture, that he would have somewhat to say against our 
faith.. Nothing is more easy to pronounce, than the first words of 
the creed, I believe. Light has been so fully dispersed among the 
nations, that were a person to survey his features in a mirror, he 
would discover a blush of conscious shame almost invariably ac- 
companying the declaration, I deny Jesus and the power of his re- 
surrection ; I am a follower of Hobbes, of Bolingbroke, of Paine ; 
their talents were of a higher order, their wisdom more sage and pro- 
found, than the talents and the wisdom of the poor Galilean, cramp- 
ed as he was by the intellectual ignorance of his age, and the yet 
crude, undigested theorems of heaven-born philosophy. The soul 
must be deeply tinged with depravity not to be seriously shocked 
at the bare thought of giving utterance to such sentiments as these,, 
They are cherished by few. They are avowed by fewer still ; rarely 
or never with the last breath they are permitted to draw. Is their 
absence then to be hailed as a sure and certain sign of the presence 
of that faith required in the Gospel of Christ? Is the mere lip con- 
fession, that he is the Son of God and the Saviour of the world, all 
sufficient to ensure his smiles and anticipate his promised rewards? 
Christianity would soon become the religion of the whole earth. 
Lord I believe would be the universal cry and he would have 
nothing to say against us. 

But alas, Brethren, the lips may move, and the soul be dumb. It 
is against persons of this description, that our Saviour would prefer 
the charge of unbelief. Do you deserve it? Ask your own con- 
sciences, if you could take unagitated and unalarmed, the solemn 
oath, I believe from the heart all that the evangelists have written, 
of what was said and done by Jesus of Nazareth? Before that oath 
■could be registered in heaven as true; his sayings must be known: 
and treasured up in the memory: his doings must have passed the 



338 



subserve the purposes of our probationary state. By him, " the 
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and 
unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." 
And do I see the world engross the thoughts of those, who are fain 
to talk of him, as their Lord and Master? Do they revel in every 
haunt of sensuality, and sip the dew from every flower, that skirts 
the path of licenticr.i indulgence? Less even than this, as the truly 
faithful concur in believing, Do they limit their duties to the edu- 
cation and maintenance of their families, to industrious habits, to 
laudable economy, to inflexible integrity in the transactions of 
business? In all these particulars, in vain do I look for that species 
of faith, which worketh by love, which purifies the heart, and over- 
comes the world. Surrounded as we are on every side by forbidden 
fruit, the language of scripture is, " touch not, taste not, handle 
not." Tempted as we are by every prospect of temporal aggran- 
dizement, the same scripture admonishes us, " Take no thought," 
in other words, think not exclusively, " for your life, what ye shall 
eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall 
put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ?" 

How obvious then, that our Saviour will have much to say against 
the sensualist on the one hand, and the worldling on the other. The 
cropping of flowers, or the husbanding of more substantial goods, 
may alike comport with a barren, intellectual faith. I know not, 
that immorality has more victims than simple, undigested morality, 
It has less credit with men, and for the peace and welfare of socie- 
ty deservedly so. But with Christ it will not alone endure the 
stripes of an endless punishment. With him, there is no substitute 
for operative faith, for that which is exemplified in every good word 
and work. To be free from the censure he inflicted upon the 
Church at Ephesus, ye must not, Brethren, leave undone those 
things, which ye ought to do. You must come to him full handed, 
fully loaded with treasures laid up in heaven. To the charities of 
life, to deeds of benevolence, to freedom from the grosser impurities, 
you must unite the devotion of the heart towards God; not only 
negative, but positive obedience towards Christ. 

Is that man entitled to be called a Christian, whose God is un- 
sought in prayer, and unworshipped in praise; whose sins are un- 
confessed, and whose repentance is confined to the sorrow of the 
world, which worketh death? Wilt he have any claim upon his 



339 



mercy, who prepared not himself according to his will and word; 
who, notwithstanding the inspired behest, "This do, and thou shalt 
live," hath failed to run in the way of God's commandments ; hath 
not opened his bible to draw from it treasures new and old, hath not 
remembered the sabbath day to keep it holy; hath not returned love 
for love, nor devoted the gifted faculties of his soul to the reasonable 
service of his Maker and Preserver? Is that man entitled to be 
called a Christian, whose faith in Jesus never soared upon the 
wings of love, nor settled down in gratitude and admiration upon 
the cross of Calvary; whose spirit never bore that cross, and in 
the consciousness of sin never felt the sharpness of those nails, 
which transfixed the hands and feet, and the venom of that spear, 
which pierced the side of the greatest of all philanthropises; Wnose 
brows were never bathed with that water, which he blessed to the 
emblematick washing away of sin ; whose soul never partook in 
faith of that crucified body, which was once made the sport and 
ridicule of ungodly men, that the ransom of his life might be liqui- 
dated, and the native heaven of his spirit become his inheritance 
forever? 

All these things are demanded of the Christian, and being left 
unperformed, can he have the confidence to believe, that our blessed 
Redeemer will have nothing to allege against him; no scruples 
about embracing him for his own, and giving unto him the blessing 
of life eternal? God forbid, Brethren, that either of us should 
stand in this awful predicament at the day of judgment. It is 
enough for sinners to be informed, in the time of this mortal pil- 
grimage, what woes will then cluster thick around the heads of the 
impenitent and unprepared. And if, notwithstanding the friendly 
warnings and admonitions of the preacher, the tremendous scene 
should burst upon their view, unexpected as undesired, oh how will 
they endure, "standing without, and knocking at the door, saying, 
Lord, Lord, open to us;*' how will they endure to hear his once 
gentle and persuasive, but now terrible and uncompromising voice, 
in reply, "1 tell you, I know you not whence ye are: depart from 
me, all ye workers of iniquity?" Under such circumstances, mere 
mortal man could not live, and would be glaclto die; glad to take 
refuge in the far less dreadful catastrophe of annihilation. But for 
the naked soul it may not be. There is immortality for the lost, as 
well as for the saved, "There shall be weeping and gnashing of 



MO 



teeth, when they shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and aii 
the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and they themselves thrust 
out." 

Take ye therefore good heed, Brethren, that Christ may here* 
after have nothing to object to your faith, and nothing to your love. 
Si re I am, that no passion of the human heart should be more 
exclusively his own. If faith presents him nailed to the cross, 
wounded, bleeding, dying, love should mingle with that faith; it 
should glow with pure, unadulterated warmth of affection, often as 
we reflect, for whose sins, for whose future welfare, he thus poured 
out his precious soul unto death; it should erect for him a throne 
within, upon which he should be established King of Kings, and 
Lore! of Lords; his sceptre should not pass away, and of his domin- 
ion there should be no end. Does he then from heaven survey our 
love, that it is cold,<languid, and expiring, ay, already dead? Much 
will he have to say against us. These may be his words. For you, 
though rich in heaven, I became poor. For you, though the dia- 
dem of the universe graced my brow, I was content to wear a crown 
of thorns. For you, though legions of angels veiled their faces 
before me, chanting paeans to my praise, and hallelujahs to my 
glory, I was moved by infinite compassion, not only to be clothed 
with your infirmities, but to be exposed to the revilings, the scorn* 
and outrage of your race; to be scourged, and buffetted, and spit 
upon; to be taken by wicked hands, and crucified, and slain. And 
what, could ye not for these unrivalled sacrifices, these unutterable 
and unknown sufferings; could ye not, throughout the term of a 
short a.nd transient life, waive one ray of amusement, one project of 
ambition, in order to wake the song of gratitude, and hymn the 
praises of redeeming love? O humanity! thou art made of stern, 
incorrigible stuff; thine eye is marble, and thine heart is iron; else 
tears would not cease to flow, nor inward wounds to bleed; else the 
universal voice of love would not fail to pierce the skies, and fulfil 
the joy that was set before me, while yet, for nine long and linger- 
ing hours, I " endured the cross, despising the shame." But I shall 
come again rejoicing, and somewhat I shall have to say against 
thee, which you will betray no anxiety to hear. 1 shall come ; but 
it will not be to weep, as I once wept over Jerusalem. It will not 
be to witness the shaking of Jewish heads, and the wagging of 
Jewish tongues. It will not be to perspire great drops of blcod 



341 



n ithia the garden grounds of Gethsemane, nor to re-enact at the 
place of Golgotha the before unheard of cry, "My God, my God, 
why hast thou forsaken me?" But I shall come; wo unto them that 
were once at ease in Zion, I shall come, precisely as Paul hath 
tol l you, "The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know 
not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: 
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the pre- 
sence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." " He shall 
come to be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that be- 
lieve," " in that day." 

Sinners! impenitent, faithless, and ungrateful sinners! it is to 
you, that these things should be the most alarming, and to you are 
they chiefly addressed. How many are there in this audience, who 
have never laid them to heart; who have never truly believed in 
Christ ; (forbid, " heavenly Father," that they should hereafter be 
made to believe and tremble,) who have never, I repeat, truly be- 
lieved in Christ: "For with the heart man believeth unto righteous- 
ness;" and what righteousness have ye practised? " With the mouth 
confession is made unto salvation," and what confession have ye 
poured into the divine ear? I will answer in the words of Jehovah, 
" Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken, 
I have nourished and brought up children, arid they have rebelled 
against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's 
crib; but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah 
sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, chil- 
dren that are corrupters! they have forsaken the Lord, they have 
provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away 
backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt 
more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart 
faint." Some of you think more of the allurements of time, than 
ye do, of those of eternity. Some of you are more concerned for 
the meat that perisheth, than for that which endureth unto everlast- 
ing life. Some of you, and I know not that I should exclude any, 
have generous sentiments, friendly feelings, charitable dispositions, 
honourable principles, manly and feminine virtues. But friends of 
my heart, attendants upon my ministry, esteemed for your candour, 
and beloved for your kindness, ] must cry aloud, and not spare 
you upon the subject of religion. Why do ye rob God of the glory 



342 



of being uppermost in your minds? Why do ye rob the Christ of 
God, of the supreme love and affection, the gratitude and thankful- 
ness, the faith and obedience,"so pre-eminently his due? Is it for 
the promises of a world about to turn its back upon you forever? 
Is it for a dream that vanisheth, and a shadow that declineth? Is it 
for gold that becometh dim, and the fine gold that shall be turned 
into dross? Where will ye lay your hands upon them, when a 
few more years shall come? Where will be "the lust of the flesh, 
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life?" All confined 
within the narrow compass of one little spot of earth. Ye will 
soon go down into the dust together; and future generations will 
know no more, and care no more, about the relicks sleeping beneath 
the tread of their feet, than ye do about the men and the women, 
who miserably perished, when the waters prevailed exceedingly, 
overtopping the topmost hills of the earth. 

How much better then to obtain an interest in Him, who careth 
for you ; who through the slumber of ages will have an eye to your 
mortal remains; who will never rest satisfied, until in God's own 
good time, he shall raise them up in great power and glory. The 
body, that ye now have, is confessedly vile. Do ye prefer it to 
one made like unto Christ's own glorious body? The soul, that ye 
now have, is conceived in sin, and born in iniquity. Do ye value 
it more, than if it were transformed into the Image of Him, that 
created you ? The world and the fashion thereof is passing awajr. 
Do ye dote upon it more, than ye prize an eternal refuge in the 
far distant country of Immanuel? The wages of sin is death. Do 
ye mean to say, that it is better to die everlastingly, than with all 
the wise and good to share the gift of God, which is life eternal? 
I put these questions to your consciences, and if ye will but let 
them do their own clever work, if ye will but let the spirit of our 
God reprove you "of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment;" 
ye will no more dare to do, as ye are accustomed to do; ye will no 
more dare to commit suicide upon your souls, than suicide upon 
your bodies; ye will determine for all future time, so to live, that 
when ye come to die and be judged, Christ shall be deprived, as 
he desires to be deprived, of all occasion to say somewhat 
against you. 

This language of his, when viewed in connexion with the context, 
is however peculiarly applicable to the languid Christian. To him* 



343 



Whose faith has deteriorated ; whose zeal has flagged; whose first 
love has been left. There is much of this lukewarmness, to call it 
by no harsher name, in every part of the vineyard of the Lord of 
Hosts. It may be seen in old excuses, new vamped and garnished 
into seemly apologies, for the neglect of heavenly things. It may 
be seen in the avoidance of duties, become too burdensome by 
repetition ; too stale to retain the charm of novelty ; too heavy & 
tax on time to be advantageously exhibited in the light of even 
eternity itself. As Eve was tired of her paradise, so the decaying 
Christian begins to tire of that Church of the living God, where 
in the estimation of David the spending of a day was better than a 
thousand elsewhere. From banqueting on the rich provision of his 
Father's board, he is tempted like her to stray, in quest of food, 
more pleasant to the eyes, and fitted to make him wiser, than that 
which is written, " This do in remembrance of me." But oh the 
wretchedness of this policy, the foulness of this ingratitude, with 
those that have once " tasted the good word of God, and the powers 
of the world to come." To feed on husks in preference to the hea- 
venly manna ! It is next to impossible " to renew them again unto 
repentance. Christ the bread of life, forsaken and rejected for the 
garbage of time, will have much to say against them. In his owa 
expressive language, immediately succeeding the text, they should 
be thus feelingly and seriously rebuked, " Remember therefore from 
whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I 
will come unto thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of his 
place, except thou repent." It was indeed portentous of death to 
its object, and as an example to others in like cases offending, it is 
scarcely less portentous of the spiritual decline, perhaps the utter 
extinction of the individual Church, that has received them into 
her sheltering bosom. 

Repent is therefore the becoming watchword of the preacher. 
Repent is that imperative mandate of Christ, which if men shall 
fail to obey, he will have somewhat more unpalatable to perform; 
he will remove their candlestick out of its place, and blot out their 
names from the Lamb's book of life. Perseverance in faith and in 
holiness is the only true wisdom; that wisdom which is justified of 
her children. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the 
man that getteth understanding: For the merchandise of it is better 
than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. 



344 

She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst de 
sire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her 
right hand ; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are 
ways of pleasantness, and all her paths, are peace. She is a tree 
of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that 
retaineth her." May God therefore, of his infinite mercy, grant us 
this wisdom, which is from above; may we so employ it, by keep 
ing our first love and doing our first works, that our Saviour Christ 
may have nothing to say against us, when the hearts of the wicked 
shall fail them through fear j and to Him ^ with the Father and Eter- 
nal Spirit, three persons and one God, shall be ascribed unbounded 
glory, and honour, and praise, world without end. Ame>:. 



SERMON XXIX. 

AMOS Vi. 1. 

Wo to them that are at ease in Zion< 

IN common with all the creatures of God, the love of ease ie 
characteristic!! of the human race. Not one of us can pretend to be 
fascinated by the charms of toil and fatigue. Not one of us to be 
captivated with the pressure of adversity, or the throes of pain. It 
is not natural. In the blissful bowers of Eden, the winds of heaven 
might ruffle its green foliage; but neither care nor perplexity ruffled 
the smooth heaven of the human heart. The one might convulse 
the neighbouring ocean, and cause it to lift up its waves on high ; 
but the other never wet the cheek with one briny tear, nor chafed 
the bosom with one surge of sorrow. Eden was but another name 
for pleasure, a garden of delights, an Elysium of joy. Ease was 
the cause, a mind at ease, a soul at ease, the heart and hands at ease. 

Nothing indeed could be more natural, when the livelong day 
was spent beneath the umbrage of the tree of life: when its fruit 
was immortality, and its culture the handiwork of God alone. And 
v hat was then natural has not lost its savour, owing to the senlenjg e. 



345 



* Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it 
all the days of thy life." We are still the lovers of ease. When it 
shuns our eager grasp, we sigh for a renewed possession, When it 
discloses its smiling features, and scatters roses in our path, we 
seem to tread on velvet, to repose on down. Wonderful then, that 
the prophet should exclaim, " Wo to them that are at ease in Zion." 
Wonderful, methinks I hear you say, that what is so natural, so 
gratifying to our senses, so congenial to our habits, should contract 
the frowns of God, and draw from him the language of reproof, en- 
forced by the threat of punishment. Does it actually disturb our 
heavenly Father to behold us free from pain, and unvexed by the 
storms of affliction ? Do our smiles annoy, and our tears delight 
him? Answer all ye gifts of heaven, from the lighted sky to the 
yielding earth, and ye can but attest our Makers praise, cur Father's 
love; that he holds us dear as the apple of his eye: that he hath 
pleasure in the prosperity of his servants. Why then this maledic- 
tion, this wo, pronounced upon the easy-hearted in the ways of Zion. 

Let us endeavour, Brethren, to analyze the subject, and assign 
some reasons, which may serve to vindicate the divine goodness 
and benevolence. Ih the first place, it should be borne in mind, 
that it is not Christian ease, which is here prospectively denounced. 
Of all that inhabit the round world, the Christian is, as he deserves 
to be, the happiest of his kind. It matters not what clime he lives 
in; what summers warm or what winters chill. He may be either 
young or old, rich or poor, bond or free; and still, if he is a good 
and faithful soldier and servant of Christ; if he has taken up his 
cross and followed him; if he has denied all ungodliness and world- 
ly lusts; if he has washed his hands in innocency ; there is ease for 
him. w The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of 
righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. And my people 
shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in 
quiet resting places. 1 " Enemies may encompass the Christian on 
every side. The sharper may defeat his worldly fortunes. The 
slanderer repeat the oft refuted lie. The busybody strive to dash 
with many a cloud the scene of every temporal enjoyment. And 
yet. they probe not the conscience of a good and faithful servant. 
They shoot not arrows that pierce like the arrows of sin; and being 
free from these, being " strong in the Lord and in the power of big 
might, 51 the moral sun illumines not a happier spirit, 

2 X 



Recollect that I refer to the genuine Christian alone, I pronounce 
no eulogium on the selfish, the interested, the exclusive and the ex- 
cluding: They, that bear the standard of mere propagandists, and, 
with a zeal closely allied to the warm canvass of a politician, com- 
pass sea and land to make one proselyte, not to the self-denying 
doctrines and precepts of the cross; but to the cause of schism, to 
the shibboleth of a sect, to the idol of a parish, to the poor wretch, 
who fondly thinks each loud hosanna chanted in his praise, a sure 
and certain index of a renewed mind. But I refer to the Christian^ 
whose banner, like the banner of Christ, is love; whose bosom dis- 
dains a throb inconsistent with the welfare of his species; whose 
" faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things 
not seen; 11 whose holiness has its foundation in the fleshly tables of 
the heart, and is practised from within to ingratiate himself with 
God, and not with man. No wo threatens him. No future curse 
impends over his head. His conscience befriends him. His soul 
dwells at ease, legitimate and unforbidden. " The mountains shall 
depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart 
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith 
the Lord that hath mercy on thee. 1 ' If I were to compare him with 
any thing in the heaven above or in the earth beneath,, it would be 
with the soft blue sky reflected in the crystal fount. Even so ia- 
the divine Image reflected in his soul, and peace, and harmony, and 
joy conspire to fill up the cycle of his years. 

Let me however remind you, Brethren, that there is often to be 
seen in the natural world a deceitful calm, followed by an unexpect- 
ed storm. The visible heavens are clement and serene; but below 
the horizon, the angry elements are brewing all their terrors, and. 
wo to the mariner unprepared to encounter the sudden gale ; wo to 
them that tempt the dangers of the sea, and have not the counsels 
of nautical experience to discern the signs of the times. Before the 
vessel is secured, the waves devour her. They, that thought of 
home, shall never think of home again ; of beholding friends and 
relatives, shall' behold no more. And what is true, in the chapter 
of natural accidents, is equally true, in the spiritual concerns of 
the soul. There is a delusive calm, which it does not, will not, 
penetrate. There is a storm approaching, against which, it has 
made no provision. u In the midst of life we are in death. 11 And 
vet, we seem to act, as if with that death we had. made a covenant,, 



347 

and as if we were at an agreement with hell. Oh that the w&rds of 
the prophet might stir up an earnest heed to the things, which belong 
to our everlasting peace, before they are forever hid from our eyes. 

Wo to them that are at ease in Zion." Wo to them, that hear the 
sayings of Jesus, and do them not. They " shall be likened unto a 
foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain 
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon 
that house ; and it fell : and great was the fall of it." 

I shall proceed, in the second place, to designate them, and hold- 
ing up a spiritual mirror to the eyes of the mind, I trust, Brethren, 
that if ye perceive any traits of resemblance, ye will not be " like 
unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For hebeholdeth 
himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what man- 
ner of man he was. 1 ' — They are at ease in Zion, whose God is the 
world ; whose glory is their shame. Look at some of the verses in 
the chapter, from which the text is selected, and you will find it re- 
corded that they " lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon 
their couches;" that they " chant to the sound of the viol, and in- 
vent to themselves instruments of musick like David;" that they 
drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief oint- 
ments." How minute the picture! How accurate, and well defined 
the colouring! How smoothly polished is the glass, in which the 
visage of the modern sinner shines, when pleasure usurps entire 
dominion over the heart and its affections, leading them captive at 
its will. Give me " a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of 
the hands to sleep." Give me the choicest viands and the richest 
delicacies. Give me " wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and 
#il to make his face to shine." Give me musick, and merriment^ 
and revelry and song." 

" These delights, if thou canst give, 

" Mirth, with thee I mean to live." 

All this is still the fond, unceasing cry of those, who are " lovers of 
pleasures more than lovers of God." I do not speak of innocent 
gratifications, of those harmless indulgences of which our blessed 
Saviour gave us an example at the marriage feast in Cana of Gali- 
lee. As I have often told you, there is nothing criminal in buoyant 
spirits, in lively manners, in a pleasant interchange of social feel- 
ings, in a moderate participation of the good things of this life. But 
he it known to you, that a continued course of mere amusement is 



348 



emphatically a course of sin. It has no preceptive warrant in hofy 
scripture. It is not justified by one single example out of the long 
list of worthies, who are there represented to have made their peace- 
with God. Whatever might have been their prior history, no soon- 
er did they " put off, concerning the former conversation, the old 
man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts no sooner 
were they " renewed in the spirit of their mind," than they " put on 
the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true 
holiness ." 

Where then are we to search for the votaries of the world ? The 
rich man of the parable was one, and ye know his fate. The 
woman described by St. Paul was another, and this is her portrait. 
" She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth." They were 
indeed at ease in Zion. They looked not beyond the present, or if 
they looked, it was under the conviction, that " to-morrow shall be 
as this day, and much more abundant.'" But at length a morrow 
came, that tore away the bandage from their eyes, and poured a 
flood of light upon their vision, more painful to gaze upon than the 
meridian sun. It was the morrow of eternity. The morrow where- 
in "their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched." 
Are ye then disposed to share their disastrous doom? Ye have only 
to continue spreading your canvass to the breeze of pleasure, and 
sailing down the stream of life, to reach forth the hand, and crop 
the flowers of various hue, that cluster upon its banks. "For all 
these things God will bring you into judgment." In due time, the 
cataract shall appear, and one fatal plunge convert the pleasures 
of sin, into the pains of hell. But do ye think this too dear a 
sacrifice for present enjoyment? On counting the cost, would ye. 
prefer so to live, that ye may spend your eternity with Peter, and 
James, and John,- with Mary Magdalen, the other Mary, and Mary 
the mother of Christ? Rouse up from the dreamy confidence of 
time and sense. Shake off the idols and the fantasies of this 
world. Pray ye the Lord to change your hearts, to purify 
your affections, to sanctify all the powers of your bodies and your 
souls. It is by pursuing the Apostolick counsel, " Put ye on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the 
lusts thereof," that ye can alone escape the horrours of the dread 
unknown. Were it not thus, our Saviour would have told you. 
Instead of threatenings, he would have been liberal in promises to 



349 



the gay and dissolute. His Church would have been a theatre } 
his sabbath, a gala day ; his holy supper, a literal " feast of fat 
things, a feast of wines on the lees ; of fat things full of marrow, 
of wines on the lees well refined." But as it is: Wo to them that 
reiterate the soliloquy of the voluptuary, " Soul, thou hast much 
goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be 
merry :" Wo to them, whose God is the world ; whose glory is their 
shame. 

They too, Brethren, are at ease in Zion, who, to use another ex- 
pression of the prophet, "put far away the evil day." And by 
the evil day, they mean the day of conversion, of mourning and 
weeping for sin, of contending manfully in the warfare of the good 
fight. They design to repent, but not now. They have a confi- 
dent expectation of hereafter adorning the doctrine of God their 
Saviour in all things; but to his immediate and urgent importuni- 
ties, to his repeated applications at the door of their hearts, "his 
head filled with dew, and his locks with the drops of the night," they 
are fain to reply, " Go thy way for this time ; when I have a conveni- 
ent season I will call for thee." Do ye not all recognise the pic- 
ture? Is it not a faithful transcript of what has passed through 
your minds a hundred, nay, a thousand times? When ye have seen 
death stalking abroad, and numbering among his victims the care- 
less and unprepared; have ye not formed many pious resolutions 
to walk no more after the course of this world, disquieting your- 
selves in vain? When he has robbed you of beloved relatives; of 
infants that knew no sin ; of fathers and mothers, husbands and 
wives, brothers and sisters, lovely and pleasant in their lives, faith- 
ful and rejoicing in their deaths ; have ye not listened and assented 
to that voice of conscience, which, on these occasions, so loudly 
conveys the solemn admonition, "Prepare to meet thy God?" It 
were useless to deny it. Were it otherwise, ye would be elevated 
above the sphere of mortals. Soon however, too soon alas, the 
tears of affection have been wiped away; the wounds of the bleed- 
ing bosom have been stanched ; and with those tears, those wounds, 
have departed all your projects of immediate reformation. The 
clay was hardly cold, the turf was not green upon the new made 
grave, before ye began to relent a little, to think better of it, and at 
length to think no more, save as ye thought at first, ever delaying 
and never coming to a good result.. 



350 



YeSj Brethren, when ye revolve these things in your memories, 
it will be found, that it has been with astonishing rapidity, that ye 
have come to your ease again. It will be found, that another and 
perhaps another shaft must be sped, before the last loved look, the 
last dying counsel shall have their full effect in converting you 
from the peace of this world to the peace of Christ. But oh ! ihh 
folly, the perversity, the infatuation of all such trifling with the 
health and salvation of the immortal soul. If ye could safely rely 
upon the lease of a year, it would be too brief for the requisition, 
u pay what thou owest," to the God that made you, to the Saviour 
that redeemed you; and are ye willing to contract that year to a 
day, when ye know not what a day may bring forth? Are ye wil- 
ling, that your part in the happiness of eternity shall depend upon 
the uncertain contingency, that the morrow will arrive? It has al- 
ready cheated many an expectation, as fair, as plausible, as strong 
as yours. Take ye therefore good heed, that it does not cheat you. 
While ye are yet sunning yourselves at your ease, the blast may 
have transpired, and the bolt be forged, which is to consign you to 
the shades of death. And then what becomes of the easy-minded 
sinner, of. his smooth complexipned flattery, his broken promises, 
his fond presentiments, his everlasting procrastination of that, 
which to be done effectually must be done to-day. " The grave" 
O Lord, "cannot praise thee; death cannot celebrate thee; they 
that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth." If we live at 
ease, while here below, vainly calculating on future days of faith, 
and repentance, and obedience, we must take the consequences; 
we must repose on shadows ; we must build on uncertainty ; we 
may die before we are aware, and, with its intolerable woes, "heU 
from beneath will be moved to meet us at our coming." 

They also are at ease in Zion, who never trouble themselves 
about their salvation, because they think that God is too good, too 
benevolent, too merciful and just, to punish them for the few trivial 
inadvertences, the few venial sins, which they flatter themselves 
can alone be laid to their charge. All the fierceness of his anger, 
they reserve for the worst offenders. They entertain not a doubt 
of their own acceptance with him, of their being hereafter admitted 
to the presence of his exceeding glory. But where I ask is the 
charter upon which their hopes are founded? Is it a suggestion 
flowing from the fountain of human wisdom? It would operate 



351 



against all punishment; that which is temporal, as well as thai 
which is eternal. And yet, little sins are punished, here. Parents 
themselves are instruments, in the hands of God, to correct the 
faults and foibles of their children ; while many petty crimes are 
amenable to the laws of the land, as well as those of a larger size. 
Is it then from the records of inspiration, that sinners obtain their 
strong reasons, and insist upon their future indemnity ? Let them 
produce them, the page, the chapter, the verse. Among Christians, 
the law and the testimony will ever be accredited. But for one, I 
have never seen them. Our Saviour found them not in any pas- 
sage of the old testament, upon which he commented ; the Apostles 
in any of his sayings; the great body of believers in the authorized 
Canon of scripture, which has been transmitted from age to age. 

True it is, that the greater crime includes the less, and therefore 
when it is written, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be 
white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
wool;" we require no higher proof to convince us of the pardonable 
nature of all human guilt, except the blasphemy against the Holy 
Ghost. But as for these nice distinctions, these venial sins compar- 
ed with such as are mortal, they are far from being countenanced 
in the bible, Without sincere repentance for every sinful thought^ 
word, and deed ; that kind of repentance, which is productive of 
newness of life, there is not one ray of hope to illumine the path of 
the transgressor; not one solitary sentence, that can absol^ him 
from the pains and penalties of eternal death. How explicit and 
peremptory are the words of Christ, "Verily I say unto you, Till 
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass 
from the law, till all be fulfilled." Does not this embrace every 
offence? Does it not require, that our repentance should be thorough 
and indiscriminate? Or, must we vary the received interpretation 
of our English tongue? Must we give to jot and tittle. the magni- 
tude of mountains, so as to exclude the indiscretions of youth, the 
peccadillo's of riper years? Truly deplorable would be the conse- 
quence; truly deplorable the age, in which such sentiments should 
generally prevail, and this declaration of our Saviour be esteemed 
of no account, " Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least 
commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least 
in the kingdom of heaven.'" No, no, the true penitent must re- 
nounce all iniquity, If he allows it in one particular., he wilf 



352 



allow it in another. If you pierce one fibre of the human heart* 
you snap all the strings of life. The feeling of ease and security 
obtained from the conviction of being little sinners, of itself marks^ 
not only a dangerous errour, but a high degree of guilt David, 
upon his bended knees, could devoutly ask of God to cleanse him 
from secret faults. But here are sinners, who persist in what they 
acknowledge to be wrong. Here are sinners, who, because they 
avoid the wide streams and merely sip the murmuring rills of pol- 
lution, are vain enough to imagine themselves fitly prepared for the 
presence of that God of purity, who chargeth his angels with folly* 
and in whose sight the heavens are not clean. 

Others again, whether present or absent I leave you to judge ? 
others are at ease in Zion, owing to the soundness of their princi- 
ples, and the settled orthodoxy of their faith. They love the 
Church. They love, its worship. They love the bible. They love 
to hear its most solemn truths delivered with Christian boldness* 
tempered with Christian charity and affection. At least, they think 
they love them ; nor have I the slightest cause to regard them in 
the light of hypocrites ; it being one, among many seeming para- 
doxes, to be able to perceive the right, and yet pursue the wrong. 
But oh! what is faith, unless its spirit stirring influence shall be ex- 
erted upon the heart? What doth it profit, to have deeply inscribed 
upon your memories, to have rigidly adopted by your reason and 
judgment, doctrines, and creeds, and confessions, which are incon- 
ti«overtibly true* if there is to be no glimmering of practice to min- 
gle with this sunshine of the law and gospel ? Faith cannot save 
you; for, "if it hath not works, it is dead, being alone." Expres- 
sions of love to God for his mercy, and gratitude to Christ for his 
redemption, cannot effect it; for true love is the fulfilling of the law; 
true gratitude must control the actions of the beneficiary. And all 
this is insufficient to rob you of your ease. You are ever hearing, 
ever learning, ever believing; but never acting. 

Dreadful inconsistency! Wonderful and unrivalled folly! How 
shall we account for it? The subject is not new to me. It has oc- 
cupied my thoughts for a length of time. Week after week, month 
after month, year after year, have I preached to you the gospel of the 
kingdom. I have not designedly kept back one truth, that could be 
profitable to you. I have prayed, that ye might receive all truth 
into honest and good hearts, and that it might bring forth in you 



353 

much fruii unto perfection. And yet, with comparatively few ex« 
eeptions, it has proved like the dropping of water upon burning 
embers, exhaled as soon as fallen. The gay have continued to be 
gay; the procrastinators to procrastinate; the self-complacent, ve- 
nial offenders to offend ; last and most to be admired, they who be- 
lieve, whose abstract faith is unimpeachable, to content themselves 
with mere believing. How then, I repeat, shall we account for it; 
for the paradox of a true faith without its corresponding fruits; 
morality indeed, but not religion ; that kind of religion, which brings 
us humble, penitent, and contrite to the foot of the cross; which is 
permanent, as the Church is permanent, and publick, as the sacra- 
ments of the gospel are permanent? 

1 have but one reason to assign, and though others may concur, 
I think it will be found to reach the conscience of the hearer. Ye 
never pray. I speak not of publick prayer. I speak of private. In 
the silence of the night, in calm seclusion, either by night or by 
day, ye lift not up your hearts to God, confessing your sins, and 
earnestly and perseveringly pleading for pardon and forgiveness. 
Ye may indeed use the words of prayer; but there is a principle 
absolutely essential to recommend those words, and this, notwith- 
standing all your orthodoxy, I fear is wanting; ye pray not in faith, 
believing; ye are too much at your ease in Zion to address the 
throne of mercy, in the confident hope and belief, that mercy the 
loveliest attribute of God will be shown to you. For, is he not a 
God, that heareth prayer? Is he not rich in mercy to all, that call 
upon him? "Before they call, I will answer; and while they are 
yet speaking, I will hear, saith the Lord." How evident then, that 
this one thing ye lack; this one all powerful magnet, that as cer- 
tainly draws down the blessing of God upon the prostrate, believ- 
ing soul, as does the polar magnet the vibration of the needle to 
{i point. 

Are ye then, Brethren, prepared to admit, that I have truly probed 
this flagrant incongruity to the core? Oh! that I could persuade 
you to commence with enlarged hearts the prayer of faith. If 
there is any thing, that can remove our spiritual lethargy, it is this. 
If the general, lively voice of praise and thanksgiving is to be 
heard among such as keep holy day, it is to be attributed to the 
preparation of the heart in men. After the example of Christ and 
his Apostles, an example, that whatever others do, i£ enough for me, 

2 Y 



354 



I will not cease to trouble your consciences in publick, with every 
forceful topick of religion; and in private, if ye desire it, as it is 
your duty to do, will I impart the little experimental knowledge 1 
possess of heavenly things. But remember, that vain are the best 
efforts of the pulpit; vain the best counsels and advice of the min- 
isters of Christ, if the hearer is still secure and confident, undis- 
mayed and unabashed. And what I say to one is urged upon the 
consideration of every class of sinners. " Wo to them that are at 
ease in Zion." It is the curse of the Church, the destruction of 
myriads upon myriads of immortal souls. So long as it exists, 
nothing good, nothing effective, nothing holy, can spring up in the 
courts of the Lord's house, or convert its waste places, its barren 
desert, into a fruitful field. But the fear of the Lord is the beginning 
of wisdom. It prevails to turn away our eyes, lest they behold vani- 
t}^; to chide home our wandering thoughts from the false lights and 
shadows of time, and to fix them where they are always best con- 
centrated, around the throne, and about the mercy seat of God. 

With him for our Friend, there can be none to molest or to make 
afraid. He is eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame; he is marrow 
to the bones; he speaketh peace and comfort to the soul. "Who 
is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" 
The gaj^ety of the sinner will expire. They that " chant to the 
sound of the viol;" they that " drink wine in bowls," cannot put far 
away the evil day. If impenitent, it must come; it will come. The 
ease of a few short years is followed by "darkness, death, and long 
despair." May Almighty God in his mercy grant, that we may 
never realize the sad and mournful destiny. May we learn to be 
wise from experience, and to grow in grace, through the manifesta- 
tion of the Spirit in our hearts. May our faith be strong, our re- 
pentance lively, our obedience perfect. " So iniquity shall not be 
our ruin ;" the love of ease, the treacherous snare of our souls. We 
shall be happy while we live, happier when we come to die. Yea, 
though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall 
^^^fear no evil: For thou, O God, shalt be with us; thy rod and thy 
staff shall comfort us. The pang will be momentary. The inheri- 
tance which awaits us, " incorruptible, and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away." Amen. 



355 



SERMON XXX. 

MATTHEW xi. 28. 

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will 
give you rest. 

THE circumstances attending the preaching of Jesus were 
in many respects similar to those existing at the present day. The 
charm of novelty, if indeed it was a charm ; the voice that spake 
as never man spake; the ocular demonstration afforded by the 
undeniable evidence of miracles; all these have unquestionably 
passed away, and in their room remain, the oft repeated truth; 
the uninspired speech of men of like passions with yourselves; no 
other corroborating testimony, than the still small voice, which 
whispers to the conscience of the hearer, " If any man will do his 
will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or wheth- 
er I speak of myself;" in other words, whether it be trul^Sialse. 
Still however, Brethren, the essential features in the characters of 
menjhave not materially changed. There are sinners now, as then. 
There are many, as invincibly attached to deep rooted prejudices, 
as were the Jews of old. There are many, who listen to the preach- 
ing of the word with an equally idle curiosity, prompted more by 
the manner than the matter, by modes of speech and action, rather 
than the imperishable truths of scripture. Exactly as it was with 
those, who enjoyed the ministry of Christ and his chosen Apostles, 
it may be said of those, who now listen to the word of reconcilia- 
tion, " Some believed the things which were spoken, and some be- 
lieved not." 

Under these circumstances, so obviously similar, that none can 
seriously question the veracity of the statement, what then should 
be the prevailing course of the present ministering servants of Jesus? 
They should endeavour as far as practicable to follow his example. 
In the discharge of their publick duties, they should not take for 
their guide the practice of erring man. They should not strive to 
soar upon the breath of popular applause, or to inhale its incense, 
as the merited reward of their services. But taking Him, for their 
pattern, who knew all things in heaven above, and in the earth be- 



356 



neath, they should preach the gospel of the kingdom, in the inspira 
tion of his Spirit, in the excellency of his doctrine, and especially 
in the truly appropriate and characteristick language, which fell 
from his blessed lips. And what was that? It was emphatically 
the language of invitation; " Come unto me, all ye that labour and 
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 

He never employed force. He never resorted to art or stratagem. 
Loud and stormy vociferation was unknown to him. He disdained 
the idea of persons being collusively enlisted to fight in the warfare 
of the good fight ; of being bribed as it were to rally round his 
standard, and impart to it the splendour and renown arising from 
numbers, rather than solid piety and increasing holiness. Sweetly 
indeed did the gospel trumpet sound. Richly did the accents of 
moral persuasion dwell upon his tongue. Anxiously and freely did 
he fulfil the prophecy; " How beautiful upon the mountains are the 
feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that 
bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith 
unto» ( gjM, Thy God reigneth !" He rose superiour to all considera- 
tions ol^lrsonal ease and security. He never omitted; in season 
or out of season, to rebuke and admonish, to exhort and persuade, 
wherever there were minds to enlighten, hearts to sanctify, souls to 
save. Never did he forget his own divine annunciation, " The Son 
of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." 

And yet, so far as I can judge from the history of the four evan- 
gelists, instead of seeking and saving sinners after the manner of 
some popular expedients now in vogue; instead of appealing to the 
self-complacent pride of the human heart, by actually repairing to 
the houses of individuals, and constantly inculcating from house to 
house the invaluable doctrines of the cross; instead of such winning 
methods to conciliate the general applause, his ministry was open 
and publick. In the audience of assembled multitudes, he announc- 
ed the great and glorious objects of his mission: explained to them, 
that he was "the way, the truth, and the life;" and affectionately 
entreated them to flee from the wrath to come, by a timely exercise 
of the graces of repentance, faith and obedience. And was a deep 
impression made upon the minds of his hearers ? Were they con- 
vinced, that he was " a teacher come from God," upon the principle 
assigned by a ruler of the Jews, " No man can do these miracles that 
thou doest, except God be with him?" I cannot find that he resor^ 



357 



ed to proselyting, domiciliary visits; that he followed them to their 
several homes, for the purpose of renewing his discourse, and estab- 
lishing them in the faith. Bat precisely according to the invitation, 
<• Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden ;" they came. 
Such as were sick and diseased, if incapable of personal exertion, 
were brought by their friends into his presence, and he healed them, 
Such as were conscious of the more dangerous maladies of the soul 
alike repaired to him, and were alike relieved. Instances of the 
kind crowd upon our notice throughout the narrative of his won- 
derful works. The halt, the sick, the blind, the impotent, the deaf 
and dumb, thronged from all quarters around his person. He did 
not visit the young man in the gospel. As you have heard this 
morning in' one of the lessons from the scriptures, Nicodemus, a 
master in Israel "came to Jesus by night." There are few or no 
exceptions. If he entered a house, he was invited. If he went 
about continually doing good to the bodies and souls of men, it was 
to those, whom he casually met upon the road ; whom he found 
among his auditors in the numerous villages of Judea, ojb^ whose 
cases were represented to him, by their friends and relatives. If he 
was frequently with the family at Bethany; with Lazarus, and 
Martha, and Mary, it was after they had enrolled themselves in the 
number of his faithful followers. If his preaching was attended 
with success, it was upon the principle, " All that the Father giveth 
me shall co3ie to me." If his warmest appeals to the hearts and 
consciences of sinners were unsuccessful, it was said, " Ye will not 
come to me, that ye might have life." 

And need I tell you, Brethren, that the course thus adopted by 
Jesus, and sanctioned by his spotless example, is still obligatory 
upon his ministering servants; that they should preach in the same 
publick manner; that they should call upon sinners in the same 
affectionate language to come unto him and be saved; to come 
unto him in the only assignable mode since his ascent into heaven, 
with teachable minds and contrite hearts, with minds ready to re- 
ceive instruction, and hearts disposed to evince its commanding 
influence in the conduct of life? Need I tell you that, hearers are 
equally bound on their part to conform to the practice of the primi- 
tive disciples; that they should come to the sanctuary of Christ, 
and hear the words of the Lord ; that, when convinced of their 
supreme value^ their imperious necessity, and desirous of em- 



358 



bracing the overtures of salvation, they should not hesitate, through 
diffidence or distrust, from making known the workings of faith 
and repentance, from repairing to the ordinances of their divine 
Master, and learning how good and pleasant a thing it is to be 

godly? 

Surely, Brethren, these are principles, that the hearers of the 
gospel should universally entertain; and am I told, that they re- 
quire private, as well as publick instruction? Be it so. I shall 
wage no war with a truth authenticated by the history of the Church 
in every stage of its existence; and what is the inference, the only 
just and rational conclusion? Those hearers do not expect from 
the physician of the body, that he should go about inquiring into 
the state of their health, whether sick or well; whether they are 
threatened with consumption, or are prostrated by fever. But as 
the sick and diseased were accustomed to resort to Christ, so they 
resort to the practitioners of the healing art. And thus should it 
be with the maladies of the soul ; thus, whenever convictions of sin 
have been produced either by perusing the scriptures, or listening 
to the doctrines enforced from them, by the ambassadors of Jesus, 
To them, inquirers should apply, if they desire additional instruc- 
tion. It is a practice sanctioned by the great Redeemer of souls, 
who knew what is in man; who was perfectly aware of the inter- 
nal effects of his preaching; and who still confined himself to in- 
viting the weary and heavy laden to come to him, Whereas the 
knowledge of his ministers is limited. They cannot penetrate the 
hearts of their hearers. They cannot ascertain with a glance, who 
are moved, who are unmoved, by those operations of the Spirit, 
which follow in the train of their pastoral admonitions. They can 
only be put in possession of these things, through the medium of 
oral or written communications. Come then to them. Ask from 
them no more direct invitation to come to Christ, than that which 
is contained in the text, in the scriptures generally, and in their 
publick ministrations. For the residue, if necessary, if doubts 
require to be removed, good desires to be encouraged, wounded 
spirits to be soothed, apply to them. Wretchedly unworthy of their 
ofiice and ministry must they be, if after the example of Christ, in 
the case of Mary Magdalen and others, they cannot, will not, anx- 
iously endeavour to help you forward in the right way, which lead- 
em to everlasting life. 



359 



For the expression of these sentiments, and believe me, Breth= 
rem they are expressed with an ardent solicitude for the welfare of 
your souls, and that you may no longer shrink from the path of duty 
by delaying to witness a good confession before God and man, — 
For the expression of these sentiments, I have, as you must per- 
ceive, the unequivocal authority of the fountain of all authority. 
It is indeed highly gratifying to reflect, that such is the construction 
given to the practice of Christ, by our truly venerable and Apos- 
tolick Church, when having recited the sacramental qualifications, 
she directs these words to be used by each of her pastors inviting 
his flock to the reception of holy mysteries, " If there be any of you, 
who by these means cannot quiet his own conscience herein, but 
requireth further comfort or counsel; let him come to me, or to 
some other minister of God's word, and open his grief; that he 
may receive such godly counsel and advice, as may tend to the 
quieting of his conscience, and the removal of all scruple and 
doubtfulness." 

Nor let it be forgotten, that the general propriety of these re 
marks is confirmed, by a reference to the individuals invited by 
our blessed Saviour. For to whom, did he address himself? " Come 
unto me all ye, that labour and are heavy laden." Had he spoken 
to the careless and impenitent, his language would have been, re- 
pent ye of your sins; believe in me; make your ways and vour 
doings good. He would first have wrought conviction in their 
minds, and then have exhorted them to cherish that conviction, 
and exhibit it to the world, by taking up his cross and following 
him. But in the present instance, his hearers were already alive 
to their former errours. They perceived the fallacy of trusting in 
their personal righteousness, their strict observance of that law, 
which no man has kept; which no man can keep. They felt what 
too many of us perhaps never feel, that they were sinners; that 
they had been guilty of many great and heinous provocations; 
that they had indulged many foolish and inordinate lusts. And 
therefore did they labour, therefore were they heavy laden. The 
sense of guilt was a weight, that pressed not lightly upon their 
consciences. It gave them unfeigned, it gave them poignant sorrow. 
Their peace of mind was disturbed. Their recent love of the world 
was unsusceptible of being revived, either to change the current 
of their thoughts, or to delude them with objects of pretendedly 




360 




greater value, than thte health and salvation of their immortal souls.. 
Sin was rather to them, as it ever ought to be to us, a sore burden 
too heavy to be borne. It revealed to their weeping eyes a deluge 
of wrath, from which they sincerely desired to be relieved, and 
yet knew not the mode, were yet desponding, yet vainly struggling 
against the overbearing torrent, which threatened to involve them 
in the wide vortex of temporal and eternal death. 

How grateful then to their ears must have been the compassion- 
ate voice of Jesus inviting them to come to him, to take upon them 
his easy yoke and light burden, and in this manner find rest to 
their souls. Doubtless, they rushed at once into his embraces. 
The)- replied to his summons with the same alacrity, that a timor- 
ous flock flies at the call of the shepherd, to experience his pro- 
tection, when a natural enemy prowls the adjacent forest, or soars 
aloft ready to pounce upon his prey. And such should be the feel- 
ings, such the present refuge of the innumerable throng of con- 
scious sinners. To this condition, they must be brought, ere they 
can cordially desire to come to Christ. When it has arrived, to his 
arms they must repair, before they can experience the healing vir- 
tues of Gilead's balm and Bethesda's wave. If they will not come 
to him, he will never go to them. At the gracious call, the simple, 
affectionate invitation of the gospel, " Come unto me, all ye that 
labour and are heavy laden," if they will not gladly avail them- 
selves of the opportunity to shake off the galling fetters of sin, 
and rejoice in the liberty wherewith Christ would set them free, 
the glorious liberty of the new born sons of God, then, their hearts 
cannot be right in his searching eye : there must be some large re- 
mainder of corruption lingering there; some fond, unsuppressed 
attachment to their earthly Delilah's; some lurking infatuation 
entirely at war with the noble sentiment of St. Paul, "I am not 
ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believem;" with the pious effusion of 
David, aspiring after still greater perfection, "Then shall I not be 
ashamed., when I have respect unto all thy commandments.*' 

The whole spirit and genius of Christianity is indeed mild and 
gentle, as the Lamb of God, its Author. Its very threats are con- 
nived in mercy and compassion. Its promises are gilded with rays 
of inconceivable lustre. Its invitations are accompanied with the 
warm fervours of infinite and ineffable love. And wbal more can 



861 



tongue demand, or heart require? Why, as a spoiled child is ea= 
L-essed and coaxed by the doting mother, do we wish to be flattered 
and courted to the discharge of our duty; to the belief and per- 
formance of those things, which we know in our hearts are destined to 
eventuate in everlasting felicity? God of heaven! How long wilt 
thou bear with our proverbial indisposition to serve thee; with our 
perpetual shifts and excuses; with our interminable loiterings and 
delays; with the prayers and praises, from which it would seem, as 
if we had known thee, for a long time, to be our great delight and 
exceeding joy, our reconciled God and Father in Jesus Christ; but 
alas, the manners, the habits, the actions, which virtually contra- 
dict all this fair appearance, and that 7 .ould serve to convince us, 
that we are none of thine, no sincere and devoted followers of thy 
beloved Son. Oh! that we truly relented and laboured; that we 
were truly heavy laden with the consciousness of excessive guilt. 
Our first step would be obedience, and it would be oar last. We 
should rejoice in the victory we had gained over sin, and leaving to 
others all those false and meretricious pleasures, which follow in 
the rear of appetite and passion, our delights would transcend all 
earthly gatiflcations, in the enjoyment of pure religion and unde- 
iiled before God and the Father. Others might insist upon being 
baited and wooed to its profession by parasites having a dexterous 
tact in all kinds of blandishment; but we should act from princi- 
ple; there would be no fascination in our religion, and no idolatry ; 
we should have an eye of faith to repose on the great Captain of 
our salvation, and the sacrifices of a broken and contrite spirit to 
be voluntarily offered up on the altar of God. 

Especially, Brethren, should we be thus alert and guileless in 
performing our incumbent duty, when reminded of the inestima- 
ble benefits resulting from a cordial, and therefore a successful 
approach to our living Head. " Come unto me all ye, that latour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." For, on the sup- 
position, that the character here delineated belongs to you, can 
you reasonably expect to be delivered from its wretchedness, by an 
application to any other physician, than the great Physician him- 
self? Go to the world, and by the world, I mean its gay enchant- 
ments; its dangerous lures, whether of business or amusement; 
its deceptive maxims and pernicious errours, — Go to this world, 
and instead of its affording the slightest prospect of substantia] 

2 Z 



m2 

pea.ce and happiness* you will only be tempted to renew all those , 
criminal indulgences, which have already caused you to mourn 
over the faults and follies of departed days. It would be like the 
insanity of him, who travels due east or west upon the equator to 
escape the burning heat of the sun, or the presumption of the sol- 
dier* who rushes to the cannon's mouth to rid himself of the fear 
of death. Go wrap yourselves up in the miserable shreds and 
patches of infidelity, and instead of the promised blessing, the 
time will assuredly arrive, when from the stupor it throws around 
the soul, you will awake to new and more aggravated horrours, 
They will probably overtake you, while yet probationers in time j 
most certainly, when the long, long agony of eternity shall have 
commenced. But to those, who from the heart accept the overture 
of Christ, not one of his promises fail to be realized. As the 
weather-beaten mariner reposes from the toils of the ocean, after 
paving gained his destined port; as the impatient traveller revels 
in the luxury of a cool, pellucid stream, with the parched desert in 
Iris rear ; so do they, that labour and are heavy laden, enjoy the 
fruition of that rest, which Jesus offers, and the imperishable in- 
stitutions of his kingdom and grace ensure. Their sins are van- 
quished. Their sorrows, springing from this source, have ceased 
to flow. In the race for glory f and honour, and immortality, they 
have left them far behind. The fresh and smiling days of infant 
innocence begin to dawn anew. Brighter, and yet brighter, suns 
arise. Precisely as the glorious luminary of heaven, with a soft 
and mellow radiance, declines in the unclouded west^. to reappear 
with redoubled splendour in the orient sky, they fall asleep in 
Jesus, with a bright believing prospect of a joyful resurrection and 
eternal life, 

Is this,. Brethren, a mere vision of the fancy, or is it fact? Do 
Christians merely seem to be happy, or are they really so? From 
their lips r the answer is invariably of a nature to justify the uni- 
versal reception of our most holy faith. It enables them to rejoice 
in prosperity, and it is their never failing solace in adversity, 
But lest this statement should be questioned by those, who never 
experienced the refreshing, heart-reviving influence of religion; 
lest the felicity of the Christian should be attributed to an unusual 
flow of animal spirits, rather than to the alleged passage from 
spiritual death to spiritual life; let us survey a scene of all others 



363 



less likely to consist with self-delusion; a scene where every maa 
becomes better acquainted with his own heart, than at any previous 
time,; where truth is almost certain to prevail, and consequently 
the actual sentiments of the soul to be disclosed. I allude to the * 
scene afforded by the bed of death, and am confident, that while 
many of the dissolute and profane, the wise in their own conceit, 
and deriders of every thing sacred and venerable, are alarmed 
and terrified at the extremity to which they are reduced; while 
they look back with weeping and mourning to the annals of a life 
squandered in vanity or something worse than vanity, and for- 
ward with indescribable agony to the expected retribution of an 
angry and incensed God ; while they are thus alarmed and terri- 
fied, the truly righteous are found to be even happier in the day of 
their death, than in any, the most prosperous moments of their 
mortal existence. 

Then indeed does religion appear to them, in all its divine and 
transcendent glory. I have seen, that it smooths every wrinkle* 
produced by care and anxiety, and composes every feature of the 
countenance to correspond with the peace and tranquillity, which 
reign within. I have seen, even with the constitutionally timid, 
that they have no fears, no terrours, not even the slightest shade of 
doubt. I have seen, that our last enemy is regarded in the light of 
a friend come to terminate the pilgrimage of a weary life, and with 
the same spear, that pierces the heart, to point out to the soul the 
avenue to eternal day. Yes, it is with such feelings, such happy 
premonitions that the righteous die, and God grant that our last 
end may be like theirs. Whatever the wicked may think of their 
lives; however, throughout this period, they may be inclined to sub- 
stitute austerity and gloom, the absence of pleasure and the pre- 
sence of pain, as more truly indicative of the rest promised in the 
text to Christians, than happiness; still it must be admitted, that 
their peaceful departure, contrasted with the fearful exit of the 
wicked, clearly evinces the truth of Christ, and the perverseness. 
of those, who will not have him to reign over them. 

To the enjoyment of a living and a dying, a present and a future 
rest, they that labour and are heavy laden ; they that acutely feel 
and would gladly escape the venom of sin, are therefore affection- 
ately invited by our gracious Redeemer. And is it not enough 
to induce them to cast down their burden at the foot of the cross? 



364 



Is it not amply sufficient to cause them to embrace with avidity a 
proposal made for their good, and worthy of all acceptation? Must 
the offer be renewed over and over again ? Must they with other sin- 
ners be persuaded and repersuaded ? Must certain forms of etiquette 
and ceremony be rigidly observed, ere they will consent to be happy ; 
ere they will come to Christ, and allow their souls to partake of the 
rest procured through the warmth and fervency of a Saviour's love 1 
Alas, Brethren, a better return than this would well become the 
objects of his benevolence. To him, it would be better for you to 
repair with the velocity of the arrow to its target. And do ye still 
refuse; still exact greater condescension on his part; that he should 
even stand at the door of your several hearts and knock, after re- 
peated applications have remained unanswered, or only answered 
with ungrateful denials of admission ? I know not but he may. I 
do not positively know the extent of the divine forbearance. But 
the course adopted by the Son of man throughout his ministry, and 
upon which I have enlarged in the commencement of this discourse, 
implies, that when he calls, ye are to answer without unnecessary 
delay ; when he says, (i Come unto me," ye are to enter into his rest, 
without debating in your minds about the suitableness of the times 
and seasons, in which the message is delivered by his ministers. 
From his own mouth it was announced before assembled multitudes. 
The example is still followed by his faithful ambassadors, and sure 
I am, that if ye do actually labour and are heavy laden, by reason 
of repented sins and a contrite spirit, ye will not put his long-suffer- 
ing mercy to further trials; ye will not hesitate openly to avow him 
for your Master, to wear his livery, and glory in his service. 

In the verses succeeding the text, he described that service, as an 
easy yoke and a light burden, For once then summon to your 
hearts sufficient confidence to believe in him. Let the world call it 
irksome and severe, a restrictive system contrived with the view of 
marring human happiness. But for once have the good sense and 
resolution to think, that ye may judge and act for yourselves. Are 
ye fearful and timorous, anxious indeed to be found in the path of 
duty, and yet apprehensive lest your best efforts should prove una- 
vailing to ingratiate yourselves with Him, whose grace and favour 
are most to be desired? Permit me to say, that never was there a 
gentler master, than our Saviour Christ, to beam with the eyes of 
love and complacency on obedient servants, He is not hard, that 



36S 



tie should reap where he has not sown, or gather where he haa. 
not strewed. He it was, who passed so high an encomium on 
the poor widow's mite. He it was, who declared that a cup of cold 
water given to his little ones should in no wise lose its reward. 
Take courage therefore, all ye that labour with distrust, all ye that 
are heavy laden with despondency. Be of good courage and a con- 
fiding heart. Come to Christ, and he will give you rest. He will 
give grace and glory, and no good thing will he withold from them 
that walk uprightly; from them that love him and keep his com- 
mandments* Ameis, 



SERMON XXXI. 

2 timothy iii. 4. 

Lovers of pleasures more than loners of God. 

THE great lexicographer Johnson, among other definitions, 
tells us, that pleasure is " delight, the gratification of the mind and 
senses?" And what are the senses? They are so many avenues 
to the mind ; so many purveyors collecting from the vast magazines 
of nature and of art, whatever can charm and captivate ; whatever 
gently move, or intensely thrill, the soul with ecstacy. Taking the 
above definition for our guide, I shall therefore in the ensuing dis- 
course submit a few observations, with the view of placing in its 
true light, a subject more talked about, than understood ; more used 
to decorate a pulpit harangue, than to convey plain, practical, and 
sound instruction to the understanding of the hearer. 

In endeavouring to effect this object, my first inquiry will be, 
Are there any pleasures, that are innocent? I answer in the affir- 
mative. There are many; so many, that to reckon them up in or- 
der would not be less difficult, than it would be to count the stars of 
heaven, or number the hairs of the head. How much idle declama- 
tion there is to the contrary, I need not urge. In the distorted vis- 



866 



ion of some men, all pleasure is sinful, all pleasure unworthy, not 
merely of the holiness of the Christian, but of the dignity and the glory 
of man. They listen to the melody of the woods, and in that melody, 
they perceive no harm. They observe the pastime of the aquatiek 
tribes, the gayety of every animal, that God hath made, and they 
discern no evil. But let the animal man only smile, and it becomes 
a crime. Let him wear a cheerful countenance, that best index of a 
good conscience and a rejoicing heart, and he is condemned to herd 
on earth with sinners, and to perish everlastingly in hell with rep- 
robates. As if Almighty God really intended, that while all the 
lower orders of creation should spontaneously rejoice in their Ma- 
ker's love, the highest link in its long extended chain ; the noblest, 
because the only intellectual and responsible among his creatures, 
should clothe his brows with gloom, and soil his cheeks with per- 
petual tears. There'can be no greater absurdity. Pleasures the 
fairest and the purest surround us on every side. In this manner 
our benevolent Creator clearly reveals his inclination and his will 
to promote our happiness. 

If you take an infant, healthy and vigorous, how little cause have 
we, surveying his innocent gambols, the sports springing from the 
impulse of untutored nature, how little cause have we, to pronounce 
of God, that he denounces , pleasure and exults in pain; how little 
to proclaim of Christ, that he intended to deprive us of every amuse- 
ment, when his declaration was, " Verily I say unto you, except ye 
"be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into 
the kingdom of heaven." If you take an individual in the full ma- 
turity of his faculties, and throughout the entire range of his rela- 
tions, the same observations apply; or, why is not every thing acrid 
to his taste, and odious to his sight, and noisome to his smell, and 
dissonant to his hearing, and repulsive to his touch? Reply is need- 
less. The pleasure of eating is not made criminal, because we feed 
on sweets; of seeing, because we are charmed with beauty; of 
smelling, because we breathe the fragrance of the rose; of hearing, 
because we are delighted with musick; of feeling, because we enjoy 
the texture of velvet. I find no such sins enumerated in the oracles 
of God. I do not find any thing vicious in the innumerable joys, 
which pertain to domestick or social life; to the warm attach- 
ment cherished for the partner of our bosoms; to the fond caresses 
bestowed upon our offspring; to the cordial grasp of friendly hands, 



367 



Misanthropes may condemn these things ; but search the scriptures, 
and instead of condemning, they enjoin them, they enjoin love to 
all mankind. 

Nor can you there discern the slightest prohibition of purely in- 
tellectual pleasures. If we may not read Milton, and Young, and 
Cowper, because they have sought to please the ear with the harmo- 
ny of numbers, then is the poetry of Isaiah, then are the lyricks of 
David, sinful. If all works of moral fiction are to be abjured, what 
are we to do with the allegories of the prophets, and the parables of 
Christ? If the study of natural philosophy is to be discarded, why 
is it written, " The invisible things of God from the creation of the 
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, 
even his eternal power and Godhead V And thus I might proceed 
through the infinite variety of objects calculated to gratify the mind 
and exhilarate the senses. So far from being interdicted by God, 
they were made by him; they were devoted to our use; they were 
designed to contribute largely and liberally, though not exclusively, 
to our felicity. 

Are there any pleasures then that are sinful ? I once more reply 
in the affirmative. There are many. I will dispose of them in three 
classes. First, all those that in their nature contravene the laws 
of God. The Romans for instance were inveterately attached to 
the shows of gladiators. They were perfectly enraptured with the 
mortal struggle, and the successful combatant received unbounded 
applause for the dexterity, with which he pierced the heart of his 
antagonist. And so, among the moderns, similar exhibitions some- 
times prevail. The fashionables, or rather the fancy, of England 
have become proverbial for their pugilistick encounters, occasional- 
ly terminating in death. With us, they only substitute beasts and 
fowls for men. But there is the like depraved taste, the like vicious 
enjoyment. We have no divine warrant whatever for inflicting un- 
necessary pain upon inferiour animals. They may be justifiably des- 
troyed for food, or owing to their mischievous character. But all 
wanton destruction is highly criminal, and all wanton cruelty. I 
allude not merely to the sports of the fowler and the angler, when 
pursued with no other object than amusement. I include the race A 
ground, subjecting the noblest of all our domestick animals to a 
large amount of pain. With what view? To gratify a passion for 
-gaming ; to please the thoughtless and inconsiderate with a display 



368 



of speed, which, every day of their lives, they may witness far sur* 
passed by the flight of birds; and this, without whip or spur, gasp 
ing lungs or panting sides, bleeding veins or foundered limbs. Oh! 
which of our number, seriously reflecting upon such scenes, can 
have the heart to encourage, by his presence, so cruel a perversion 
of human power; one, notwithstanding the usual pretences, so utter- 
ly destitute of beneficial tendencies, so fraught with those that de- 
moralize society, and to a very great degree impair the kindly feel- 
ings of humanity? If I remember right, the mild and amiable 
Claudius is said to have become a monster of barbarity, owing to 
the frequency, with which he gratified the populace of Rome with 
gladiatorial combats. 

The second class of pleasures, which are sinful, are those that, 
originally innocent in themselves, become the reverse through ex- 
cessive indulgence. 'We may drink wine, or the grape would not 
have existed ; Paul would not have written this prescription for 
Timothy, " Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy 
stomach's sake, and thine often infirmities." But to become inebri- 
ated; to intoxicate the senses with the fumes of liquor; to put out 
for a time the light of the mind, is eminently iniquitous as well as 
pernicious. It is perverting to unhallowed purposes what God in- 
tended for good. It is seeking pleasure beyond its just limits. It is 
returning the bounty of Providence with personal shame and per- 
sonal degradation. And all excess in pleasure, if not to the same 
extent, is in a similar point of view evil, and therefore forbidden, 
When we trample upon the modesty of nature ; when we exceed her 
moderate desires, yielding all our faculties to amusement, and all 
our members as instruments of time and sense, vice is necessarily 
engendered, licentiousness prevails without a license, and guilt 
without excuse. On perusing the parable of the rich man, I do not 
discover, that he was condemned for his knavery or his ferocity; for 
the violence of his anger or the vindictiveness of his revenge. He 
was merely voluptuous and convivial. " He was clothed in purple 
and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day." Still however- 
after death, " in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments.*' He 
is excluded from heaven. He is not allowed to plead in justifica- 
tion of his conduct, the craving of his appetites, the enticing char- 
acter of his enjoyments; that at most, they only injured himself: 
that, arrayed against many other offences, they were comparatively 



369 



trifling and venial. But an useless, extravagant, and luxurious 
life is manifestly condemned, and fated to terminate in everlasting 
destruction. He enjoyed his good things here, and Lazarus with 
evil things was afflicted; but in the issue, the latter is comforted, 
and himself sorely tormented. You cannot, Brethren, require a 
more convincing proof, that God hath set bounds to our gratifica- 
tions, over which man must not pass, or only pass to ensure an 
eternity, in which to weep and lament, to writhe in anguish and 
shudder in despair. 

The third class of sinful pleasures are those, which, however 
virtuous in themselves, fail to obtain the approbation of heaven 
owing to the disposition, with which they are embraced and pur- 
sued. My meaning is, that as enjoyed by some, they are vicious, 
and by others, virtuous; although to the human eye there is no 
shade of difference, and no symptom of excess. I have already 
remarked upon the pleasures derived from the domestick relations, 
and, as an abstract proposition, it would be the height of folly to 
contend, that we should not dearly love such as are united to us by 
the nuptial and kindred ties. It is rather concordant with nature, 
and with the word of God. "Husbands love your wives." "Ye 
fathers, provoke not your children to wrath : but bring them up in 
the nurture and admonition of the Lord.'" Suppose however, that 
the affections of a man are altogether engrossed by his family con- 
nexions ; suppose, and I apprehend it is a very common case, that 
he loves them better than he loves his God ; the Father, who made 
him; the Son, who redeemed; the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to 
sanctify all the people of God: Is this right? Is this being holy, 
harmless, and undefiled? Assuredly, Brethren, most assuredly, sin 
lieth at that door. An innocent passion becomes the opposite, be- 
cause it stands alone ; because it is selfish and improvident, unac- 
companied by gratitude to the founder of families, an intenser glow 
of devotion towards him, who hath said, "He that loveth father or 
mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son 
or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me." And thus, precisely 
thus, with every other kind of virtuous pleasure. This passage 
furnishes the principle upon which to estimate the real merits of 
our domestick attachments, and the text speaks a similar language 
in reference to whatever else can properly allure the mind or 
ravish the senses. They, that are lovers of pleasures, far the 

3 A 



376 



greatest in number and variety, far the richest and purest in their 
nature, are not sinful on this account. God the rather approves it. 
He hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servants. But they are 
sinful^ because they are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of 
God. More, you perceive, is the comparative and the emphatick 
word. So that, if you show me the man, who prefers Him, whose 
favour is life, whose loving kindness is better than the life, who 
prefers Him to every thing else ; I care not what are his pleasures, 
or with what eagerness they are pursued. It is morally impossi- 
ble, but that they are innocent, free from every stain of guilt, and 
without offence. He cannot at the same time love God and love 
sin. 

Under other circumstances, he would be a sinner, though ap- 
parently pure and spotless; though you could not charge one vice 
upon him, nor detect the smallest impropriety in the nature, the 
manner, or the time of his amusements. But God, who searcheth 
the heart, and trieth the reins, is fully aware of his inward predi- 
lections. He does not object to his fondness for the social circle; 
to the ardour with which he follows his occupation in life ; to the 
taste he exhibits for letters and philosophy ; to the cheerfulness 
and hilarity with which he enters upon his daily round of recrea- 
tions, corporeal and mental. But he objects, that these legitimate 
pleasures are not entertained in subordination to the love of him; 
that their votary thirsts for them, transient and summary as they 
are, more than he thirsts for him, the living God; that completely 
absorbed in them, he cannot say with the holy David, " As the hart 
panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O 
God." "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon 
earth that I desire besides thee." 

Yes, Brethren, here is the grand distinction to be observed on 
this much abused and ill debated subject. A sinner goes forth to 
his pleasures with his whole soul bereft of every other thought, 
He eats and drinks with no saying or feeling of grace to the Lord, 
Awake or asleep, he is alike dead to his love and reckless of his 
bounty. Walking or riding, talking or musing, reading or writing, 
self is the idol of his affections; self is connected, in some way or 
other, with all his emotions, and all his pursuits. God is not in all 
his thoughts, or is only permitted to dwell for a moment there, un- 
honoured and unglorified by serious meditation, by devout aspka- 



371 



tions, by grateful reminiscences, and therefore he remains a sin- 
ner. But the Christian uses this world as not abusing it. He has 
a hymn of praise for every delight, a tribute of thanks for every 
blessing. He enjoys the fair face of nature; he participates of the 
good cheer and the hospitable board ; he meets his friends with the 
smile of welcome, and the heart of sympathy; he takes up an 
amusing volume, and peruses it with lively interest; and still in 
these, and all other pleasures, he knows full well, that they only 
endure for a time; that they cannot save the soul alive; that they 
are embraced by him with undiminished affection for his God and 
Saviour; and therefore he remains a Christian, therefore his heart, 
faithful and sincere, still fondly turns to the divine fountain, whence 
all the various streams of joy are commissioned to flow. 

With the preceding remarks, dismissing a rapid survey of the 
second branch of the discourse ; another general inquiry may be 
summed up in the question, Are there any pleasures, which are 
either innocent or sinful according to circumstances, involving for 
example the consideration of time and place? I am very free to 
reply in the affirmative, and am no less confident than free. Amuse- 
ments, that would be proper and harmless in most places, are highly 
offensive and blameworthy in the temples of God. These are en- 
tirely unsuited to levity or diversion. While the congregation are 
engaged in their devotions, while the preacher is occupied in de- 
livering the truths of the everlasting gospel, for individuals, as the 
manner of some has been, to be employed in whispering and even 
conversing aloud, in opening and even reading other volumes than 
those appropriated to our solemn service, is not merely a breach of 
decorum towards the worshippers of God in his holy temple, but 
also a direct affront levelled at the majesty and glory of God him- 
self. It is irreverent in its nature, faithless in principle, and dis- 
gusting in practice. "How dreadful is this place! This is none 
other but the house of God and this is the gate of heaven. n " Draw 
not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place 
whereon thou standest is holy ground." These are the declara= 
tions of the bible, and consequently every look, every attitude, 
every gesture, every expression, militating with them, betray either 
thoughtless folly or spiritual unconcern. Here every muscle should 
be composed in solemnity, and every spirit subdued in devotion. 
•~Ocome, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before tha 



372 



Lord our Maker." Curiosity should not bring us here ; we should 
come to praise and pray, to listen and improve; our attendance 
should be early, and the disgraceful practice of retiring, before the 
services are concluded, held in just abhorrence, " Keep thy foot 
when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear 
than to give the sacrifice of fools : for they consider not that the}^ 
do evil." 

Similar remarks apply to the sabbath day. It is as much, ay, 
it is more profaned by amusement, than it is by labour. And yet, 
how many refrain from business, who refrain not from rinding their 
own pleasure, often as it returns to remind us of the Lord of the 
sabbath, and of the publick homage he now requires of all, that are 
fed by his bounty and protected by his care. By some, it is wasted 
in idleness and languid ease; by others, in needless visits, in "fool- 
ish talking and jesting, which are not convenient." Others again, 
soon as the rising sun prognosticates a fair and pleasant day, imme- 
diately plan an excursion for recreation and merriment. They are 
not satisfied with what the preceding week has enabled them to 
enjoy. They must encroach on sacred hours, and contribute, all in 
their power, to obliterate from the memory of man, this standing 
and authentick memorial of divine revelation, of the truth of our 
religion, of the existence of a Being highly exalted above all prin- 
cipalities and powers ; alone deserving our adoration and praise ; 
alone worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance. But these 
things ought not so to be. There is no mere worldly enjoyment, 
that is in the smallest degree adapted to the duties of the holy sab- 
bath. Though it may be sinless at other times, it is sinful now. 
Though it may escape present retribution, there is a day approach- 
ing, when for all these things God will certainly bring the trans- 
gressor into judgment; when he will visit him with the rod of his 
anger, and consume him with his hot displeasure. 

Our final inquiry will be directed to those pleasures, which are 
evidently entitled to be considered the wisest and the best. What 
are they? I contend that they are such as are spiritual and hea- 
venly. All others come to an end. They transcend not the con- 
fines of the grave. When a few more years are come, it will be no- 
thing to us, whether we lived in prosperity or in adversity ; whether 
we were fanned by the breeze or ruffled by the storm ; whether we 
lived with the wife of our youth, and the offspring of mutual love, or 



373 



early buried them, far from sight and hearing, beneath the clods of 
the valley. In the case of the righteous, the morn of the resurrec- 
tion will tranquilize every sorrow, and equalize every joy. Their 
fate hereafter is not determined by the lights and shadows of time. 
There the pious rich and poor meet together, alike rich in God's 
grace and mercy, alike removed from the vicissitudes of life, and 
clothed with the garments of salvation. Give me then, O God, ex- 
claims the Christian, a relish for pleasures allied to results so glori- 
ous and divine, and I will esteem them of more value than my neces- 
sary food ; of more intrinsick worth than all else, that the eye can 
covet, or the heart desire. Sooner than fail to obtain them, I am 
content to be poor and needy, afflicted and chastened, desolate and 
forsaken. I long for thee, O God ; my soul doth wait for thee, as a 
thirsty land for the refreshing dew and genial shower. Oh ! shed 
abroad the light of thy countenance upon me, and give me the help 
of thine arm, to lead me on the road to heaven. 

Nothing indeed can be more futile or preposterous, than the com- 
monly received opinions upon the influence of Christianity. It is 
thought to interpose an insuperable barrier to all real enjoyment ; to 
be clad in black and enveloped in clouds; to be dismal and gloomy, 
mournful and melancholy, with every other epithet adapted to ex- 
press the sorrows of a wounded spirit and a drooping heart. But, 
while it is suited to every temporal source of felicity, how obvious 
on a little reflection must it be, that the pursuit of those pleasures is 
necessarily productive of the greatest gratification, which are 
known to continue through life, and after life to last forever. And 
these are the pleasures of religion. Christians feel, that they have 
a mansion prepared for them in heaven. Can this give them pain? 
They are conscious, that in its bright abodes, there will be no stint- 
ed joys, no scanty measure of enduring bliss. Is this likely to 
move their souls to sadness? As well and better might you doubt 
the happiness of an infant sheltered by the maternal arms, or the 
felicity of a bride upon her nuptial morn. No, no, there are none on 
earth to compare with the righteous in the elevation of their hopes, 
and the brightness of their presentiments. 

" Fired at the prospect of unclouded bliss, 
c{ Heaven in reversion, like the sun, as yet 
" Beneath the horizon, cheers us in this world; 
" It sheds on souls susceptible of light, 
' :i The glorious dawn of our eternal day." 



374 



They possess a treasure, which the world can neither give nor take 
away. They have the faculty of contemplating the thing that shall 
be, and the privilege of drawing upon resources there, which fill up 
the vast extent of their desires, and like the widow's cruise of oil? 
that never fail. 

" Some joys the future overcast, and some 

" Throw all their beams that way, and gild the tomb. ,? 

In drawing to a conclusion, surfer me then, Brethren, to hope ? 
that the few thoughts thus hastily collected together may be found 
to present a fair account of that pleasure, which consists in the 
" gratification of the mind and senses,'" Regarded in its true as- 
pect, it may be justly said to constitute " man's chief good on earth," 
and is so far from being denied his possession, that "light is sown 
for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart;" is so far 
from being sinful, that the moment our attention is directed heaven- 
ward, one wide immeasurable ocean of felicity is forthwith an- 
nounced as the inestimable reward of well-doing. Does this look, 
as if God would willingly grieve and afflict the children of men? If 
he holds out as an incentive to holy obedience, that in his presence 
is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore, Does this indicate to the 
Christian, that he is to go sorrowing all his days ; that those, who 
are the ransomed of the Lord, are to go to Zion, with tears and 
sighs, and not with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads? I 
have not so interpreted his precious promises, I have not so under- 
stood Paul, where he saith, " Rejoice in the Lord alway : and again 
I say, Rejoice ;" nor Peter, where he describes the saints of the 
Most High anticipating the coming of the Son of man, "Whom, 
having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet 
believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory." 

At the same time, Brethren, I would have you distinctly under- 
stand, that these remarks are not designed to hold out the least ray 
of encouragement to the "lovers of pleasures more than the lovers 
of God." As they choose to live without him in this world, so they 
must be content to live without him in the world to come. He af- 
fords them no hope of future happiness. They can extract none 
from the admonitions of his faithful ministers. Indignation and 
wrath, tribulation and anguish, do rather threaten them, and if they 
repent not, if they will not bring forth fruits meet for repentance, 
are as certain of overtaking them in the end, as God is true, his 



B75 



vvord divine, his judgments righteous, and his power omnipotent 
Have ye therefore but too much reason to include yourselves in the 
number of those, who have the temerity, and I may add the folly, 
to advance the pleasures, which consume as they sparkle, higher in 
the graduated scale of their love, than the First and the Last; He, 
who was, and is, and is to come ; without whom there can be no 
real happiness here, and must be inconceivable pain hereafter? Oh! 
that ye might be persuaded to abandon these false delights, these 
meretricious pleasures. They are unworthy the name. They are 
no better than lying vanities. They will otherwise separate be- 
tween you and God. They will beguile you of your immortal souls, 
and consign you in death to the communion and fellowship of be- 
ings, the smoke of whose torment ascendeth forever and ever. But 
only change the object and the current of your affections; become 
ye the lovers of God more than the lovers of pleasures, and then, 
" Though tempest frowns, 

" Though nature shakes, how soft to lean on heaven! 

" To lean on Him, on whom archangels lean!" 
Ye will experience more true pleasure in one such hour, than in 
ten thousand spent amid the sated joys of sin. Ye will commence 
that course of fruition, which shall never end. Ye will be happy in 
life, happy in death, happy in eternity. Your last look on earth 
will be followed by the vision of eternal joy. Amex. 



SERMON XXXII. 

James ii. 19, 20. 

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also 
believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith 
without works is dead? 

IT will be remembered, by those of your number, who were 
present upon the last sabbath, that I had occasion to advert to the 
fact of its being far easier to believe than to obey. The subject un^ 
der discussion did not permit me to exemplify at large the truth of 
ihe proposition. This deficiency I shall now endeavour to- remedy. 



376 



tully persuaded that there is no greater errour committed by the 
present ministering servants of Christ, than a predominant anxiety to 
dwell upon the doctrinal to the almost total exclusion of the practical 
concerns of our holy religion. I know the cause, and weak and 
timid minds, ignorant and half learnt theologians, are extremely apt 
to yield to its insidious influence. I allude to popular opinion. For 
a long time its current has set very strongly in favour of purely doc- 
trinal disquisitions. What is termed an improvement is indeed tol- 
erated at the conclusion of a discourse; but then so brief and mea- 
ger, that the well-instructed in opinions are scarcely taught the 
most common duties and charities of life. The impression has even 
gone abroad, that moral discourses are a disgrace to the pulpit, and 
clearly indicate the absence of a spiritual mind, on the part of the 
preacher. Under such circumstances, 1 need not tell you, that it 
requires no inconsiderable share of resolution and firmness to stem 
the torrent of prejudice; to declare the truth as it is in Jesus, and 
loudly call upon the sinner to " awake to righteousness, and sin 
not." Preachers are but men. They have the hopes and expecta- 
tions, the passions and infirmities of men, and wishing to stand well 
in the general esteem, especially with those of their own party, they 
insensibly, if not designedly, adopt a course of instruction, which 
their own better judgment should condemn ; which the example of 
Christ himself, the greatest and plainest of all moral preachers, 
ought to convince them is decidedly at variance with the interests 
and the wants of the hearer. 

Not however to anticipate the closing remarks, it is my intention 
to submit, I shall proceed at once to the proof of the assertion, that it 
is far easier to believe than to obey. Let us look at the actual 
condition of things, wherever the Christian religion is embraced, 
In common with some, if not most other systems, it has its founda- 
tion in the great and glorious truth, that there is a God. If you 
abstract him from its records, the grand and majestick e*difice, we 
have been so long accustomed to regard with wonder and admira- 
tion, is deprived of its base; you demolish it at a blow, and so 
thoroughly, that, like Jerusalem of old, not one stone shall be left 
upon another, that shall not be thrown down. But who is there to 
disbelieve in the existence of God? I know of none. I never 
knew the man, who openly denied it. If, in scriptural language, 
:c The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God;" if a few wretch- 



377 



<5d philosophers have occasionally appeared and attempted to palm 
this gross falsehood upon the credulity of the world, it has certain- 
ly possessed the good sense to reject the absurdity; it has never 
fallen a prey to those baleful meteors, that would fain have extin- 
guished with their lurid fires the Light of Lights. They have 
rather sunk into merited obscurity, attracting a momentary gaze, 
owing perhaps to the thick darkness in which their feeble lamp was 
set, and then disappearing to deepen yet deeper the gloom of an 
eternal night. If it had not settled 'iown into a truism, that there 
is no general rule without its exceptions, we might safely say, that 
such a being as an atheist does not exist in Christendom to outvie 
the iniquity of the very devils, who believe and tremble. 

As it is, the belief in God must be admitted to be nearly universal, 
But when you come to the duties consequent upon that belief; when 
you cast your eyes over the busy throng of men, and justly appre- 
ciate the principles by which they are governed, oh ! how slight- 
ly are their hearts inflamed with the love of their heavenly 
Father! How feebly does the glow of gratitude pervade the bosom 
of the best of them ! How greatly do the numbers preponderate, 
who in ten thousand times ten thousand modes hesitate not to vio- 
late his laws, and virtually defy his power! Speak to them of the 
perfection of his character, of the holiness of his name, of the 
riches of his goodness, of the reasonableness of his worship, and 
they will immediately assent to the justice of every position ; they 
will for the most part acknowledge every thing, that a pious mail 
would wish them to acknowledge ; but the moment his back is turn- 
ed, they forget his counsel ; they fly from their own serious thoughts, 
and consign to oblivion the obligations of reverence and affection, 
of honour and allegiance, of praise and thanksgiving. They can 
even take the holy name of God in vain, and, with now and then a 
fearful pang of remorse, unconcernedly do those things which they 
know in their hearts contravene his will, and provoke his just in- 
dignation against them. You will not pretend, Brethren, that I am 
here giving a coloured statement. You must be sensible, that it is 
no libel upon our common humanity. And what does it prove? 
What is the fair inference to be drawn from the simple fact, to 
which I have called your attention? It establishes beyond all con- 
troversy the facility, with which belief is entertained, compared 
ynth the difficulty, with which obedience is practised. 

?> B 



378 



An observation that applies not more certainly to its great Au- 
thor, than to the system of divine truth he has deigned to disclose. 
What man is there amongst you, who does not call himself a Chris- 
tian? Who is there to disclaim the appellation, and to prefer one 
of a less distinguished rank? In our biblical world, with the ex- 
ception of a few Jews, serving to fulfil the sure word of prophecy ; 
with the exception of a few infidels seldom caring to encounter the 
odium of publick opinion, and rarely dying in that unhappy per- 
suasion, we all consent in some shape or other to the truth of the 
bible, including the gospel of Christ. Look at its circulation, there 
is no other volume to compare with it in extent; at its perusal, 
sooner or later it attracts the eyes of all j at the institutions by 
which it is accompanied, the spires of innumerable Churches by their 
Jieavenward ascent would seem to rival the prayers of the faithful,, 
they adorn our proudest cities, and in the bosom of the wilderness 
are, in themselves respectively, as a city set upon a hill, which can- 
not be hid. Christianity is therefore fastened upon us by a tie, 
which nothing earthly can rend asunder. It is to the righteous, as 
an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast, and to the unright- 
eous, as a fee simple lying in abeyance, which at some future time 
they fondly calculate will fall into their possession. 

And still, notwithstanding this general belief, this mental acqui- 
escence in the truth of scripture, the multitude do not cease to do 
evil ; they are not afraid to any good degree of amazement, when 
they are engrossed by the affairs of this world, and the lusts of oth- 
er things - T when they pursue with avidity the mere pleasures of 
sin, and even perpetrate the higher acts of enormity. And I desire,, 
no one can reasonably desire, any better evidence to convince the 
judgment, how much easier it is to credit the theory, than to excel 
in the practice cf our religion. If we could only contrive to do what 
we know and believe we ought to do, society would soon wear a 
new face, and put on a more beautiful appearance, "Thy walls.'* 
OZion,. would be " called Salvation, and thy gates Praise." 

To the evidence already adduced, the evidence of facts seen by 
the eye and heard by the ear, reason also unites her testimony, and 
assures us, that it is easier to believe than to obey. The great 
elementary truth, of the bible is scarcely pronounced before the^ 
mind approves it. The idea of God is almost intuitive. As a first 
proposition, his existence is certainly sooner credited, than that <# 



379 



♦any thing incapable of ocular inspection. With some, the oevil is 
a creature of the imagination. With others, it is doubtful, whether 
the rolling orbs of heaven are inhabited or not. But reason tells 
us, that wherever there is an effect, there must have been an antece- 
dent cause. The universe is formed, and Who made it? is an in- 
quiry, that leads us at once to One supreme in power. It abounds 
in features disclosing the most gracious and benevolent designs; 
designs indicating a desire to promote the happiness of all living 
things, and we adopt with enthusiasm the opinion, that our God is 
good, and that his tender mercies are over all his works. In this 
manner then, reason teaches us to admit as an incontrovertible 
truth the existence of the Deity. We do not, cannot, doubt it. With 
the light of nature and the volume of inspiration to inform us of the 
duties he exacts at our hands, we are also capable of perceiving the 
verity of these declarations of David, " The law of the Lord is per- 
fect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making 
wise the simple : the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the 
heart : the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes : 
the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of 
the Lord are true and righteous altogether." We have only to ex- 
amine them attentively and seriously, and our reason is perfectly 
satisfied, that for the promotion of our real felicity, " More to be de- 
sired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also 
than honey, and the honey-comb." 

Why then are they not suffered to control our lives and conver- 
sation? When the mind is persuaded, that our greatest good de- 
mands it; when we feel, or if too young to feel, when we cannot 
look abroad, without discovering that evil pursueth sinners, and 
causes all their mental and corporeal " beauty to consume away, 
like as it were a moth fretting a garment," Why do we not, in com- 
pliance with the counsels of our own understandings "cease to do 
evil, and learn to do well ;" cease to betray, and learn to secure our 
best and noblest interests ? I have no difficulty in referring you to 
the only true solution. It constitutes another link in the chain of 
evidence already submitted, that it is easier, far easier, to believe, 
*han to obey. 

I draw the same conclusion, often as I reflect upon the bias of our 
natural inclinations. There is no such constitution of our minds 
and hearts, as l^ads us to vacate the throne of the universe, and sub» 



380 



stitute the operations of a blind fatality, for the power and wisdom 
exerted over the works of creation, by the God of the Christian. We 
rather consider it an honour to be permitted to use the endearing 
address, " Our Father, which art in heaven." It is a source of 
gratification, that our origin is thus elevated and august ; that the 
nature of the relationship here claimed is thus auspicious and divine, 
To be called the children of chance shocks our reason. To be stig- 
matized as the children of the devil rouses our indignation. But 
to be entitled the sons of God, the children of a heavenly Father, 
is both soothing to the pride of the sinner, and grateful to the hu- 
mility of the saint. Nor does it prove revolting to our natural in- 
clinations, that life and immortality have been brought to light by 
the gospel. The soul is decidedly anxious for another state of ex- 
istence. Though destitute of a written revelation, the ancients 
dwelt with transport upon a future Elysium in the presence of the 
Gods; the modern savage exults in the thought of happier skies and 
a lovelier, purer region, in which to follow with keener relish his 
wonted pleasures; while in our own case, ere the sinner becomes so 
preposterously wicked, as to presage nothing else but a certain fear- 
ful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall de- 
vour all the adversaries of God, 1 take it upon me to affirm with the 
utmost confidence, that the idea of annihilation afflicts and corrodes; 
that the consciousness of immortality expands and gladdens the 
heart. We do not want the body to lie forever in cold obstruction ; 
much less can we endure to think, that the soul shall forever sleep 
the sleep of death. 

So far however as the influence of our inclinations on the conduct 
of life is observed, we do not perceive that it maintains the ascen- 
dency it ought to produce. There are numerous exceptions. There 
are multitudes of the wise and good to look, with all the singleness 
of heart it is possible for man to exercise, to the final recompense 
of reward; to the final enjoyment of "a city which hath founda- 
tions, whose builder and maker is God." But still, how many oth- 
ers exist, who rest contented with the knowledge and belief that, 
such things are, without putting forth their best and noblest efforts 
to secure the same glorious prize. Some perhaps upon the princi- 
ple, that future punishment is no more than the crude conception 
of the pulpit. But not all, not unfrequently have 1 heard individu- 
als admit the reality of future and eternal inflictions, who havenott 



381 



withstanding dared to continue in the course of sin, which they 
foresaw must either terminate imrepentance or everlasting destruc- 
tion from the presence of the Lord. And how are we to account 
for it ? What better solution can be given than that, which it is the 
object of this discourse to impress upon your minds? If it is as easy 
to obey, as it is to believe, motives surely are not wanting with such 
men. They have the highest that can be brought to bear upon hu- 
man volition. They have a heaven to gain, and a hell to escape. 
But alas, poor, frail, and inconsistent humanity ! while in relation 
to the concerns of good and evil, of life and death, it discerns the 
better, it is only to pursue the worse, career. The habit of sinning 
has at length become so strong and inveterate, that religious duties, 
however pleasing in theory, are far too irksome in practice. Sinners 
cannot away with them. Flesh and blood cannot consent to forego 
their sensual indulgences, although the mind be sadly conscious, 
that their tendency is present ruin, and the end everlasting wo. 

Again, Brethren, we have a better knowledge of our faith, than 
we have of our practice, and this renders the former easier of ac- 
quisition than the latter. You may think it a bold proposition, but 
in the sense in which it is urged a little reflection will convince 
you, that nothing is more susceptible of demonstration. For to 
commence with our great Creator, I do not mean to assert, that, 
either in this world or in the w T orld to come, we can possibly attain 
to a perfect knowledge of the rnajestick essence and glory of the 
Infinite. To this extent, we cannot "by searching find out God;" 
we cannot "find out the Almighty unto perfection/' "The secret 
things belong" unto him, and those only "'which are revealed be- 
long unto us and to our children forever." But then, when nature 
indicates, and the bible proclaims, that there is a God, I perceive 
my faith to be compelled in a manner, it is impossible to overcome. 
I perceive also, that it is not in the slightest degree impaired, owing 
to the impracticability of going behind the record, and endeavour- 
ing to ascertain what is clearly transcendental in its nature. I do 
not believe in God the less firmly, because I cannot comprehend 
him. I do not cease to ascribe to him all glory, and honour, and 
dominion, and power; all wisdom, and knowledge, and purity, and 
holiness ; all grace, and mercy, and benevolence, and love, because 
I am incapable of conceiving, much more of delineating, the un- 
fathomable depth of these adorable attributes. Who for instance 



382 



can master the idea cf self-existence, or of eternity 1 And yet, 
who does not bejieve, that God is both self-existent and eternal ? 
If I take a diamond in my hands, before crediting its actual pre- 
sence to my sight and touch, I am not obliged to describe, what 
cannot be described, the manner in which it was manufactured in 
the workshop of nature. Nor do you disbelieve in the round world, 
because you cannot tell how it was created out of nothing. Faith 
in God depends not therefore upon a perfect knowledge, and when 
once entertained is perhaps the less subject to fluctuation from 
the very circumstance, that clouds and darkness rest upon its ob- 
ject ; that he is verily a God that hideth himself. 

Similar remarks are applicable to those other fundamental doc- 
trines of the scriptures, which make the largest demands upon our 
faith. On examination, I am satisfied upon their simple assertion, 
that, in consequence of the fall, we are naturally inclined to evil ; 
that the Son of Gcd, in the likeness of sinful man, did die upon the 
cross for the purpose of procuring our redemption, and washing 
away our sins in his atoning blood; that there are eternal rewards 
for the righteous, and eternal punishments for the unrighteous, 
after this painful life is ended. But if- you ask me, why it is thus; 
if you wish me to give a reason, where God has preserved an un- 
broken silence, 1 am free to acknowledge my incapacity. I cannot 
transcend the limits of the scriptures. I am indeed satisfied with 
what is written, and have no desire to travel into the boundless re- 
gions of fancy and conjecture. But these observations are made 
with the view of convincing you, that when the inspiration or hea- 
venly origin of the bible is once clearly ascertained and established 
in the mind of the Christian, his faith is not weakened through in- 
ability to comprehend what is incomprehensible; but he reposes 
with perfect confidence in the divine truth and justice; in other 
words, he easily believes in doctrines delivered with, and resting 
upon, authority alone. Their remote philosophy, he leaves to be 
settled and vindicated by the unerring wisdom of heaven. 

It is when his practice is materially affected by the limited amount 
or the uncertain character of his knowledge; it is then, that he 
encounters the greatest difficulties experienced in this life of trial 
and temptation. Were all the commandments of God of a negac 
tivc nature and obligation, it would not be thus? "Thou shalt not 
/kill," for example, is easily understood, and when broken, the vio- 



383 



lation is as easily known. " Thou shalt not commit adultery : Thou 
shalt not steal: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy 
neighbour," are of the same class. But let us advert to one of a 
positive description, " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," 
and no little thought and reflection are requisite to comprehend all 
the duties it imposes upon our observance. The man in the gospel 
was obliged to inquire, "who is my neighbour?" and although our 
Saviour has satisfactorily determined this, in the beautiful parable 
of the good Samaritan, yet the measure of our love to be evinced 
towards others, in the various intercourse of life, is a subject, that 
can by no means be disposed of, in the twinkling of an eye. Even, 
when properly adjusted, there is a vast amount of pride and selfish- 
ness, of passion and prejudice, to be subdued, before we can arrive 
at the rigid and undeviating performance of what we have deter- 
mined to be our duty. We have an enemy malicious and revenge- 
ful, for our neighbour, and we are to love him. But in what man- 
ner ? What will constitute a discharge, and what a failure in re- 
lation to our obligation? We have another, that is our friend, but 
at the same time the slave of vice and pleasure. Are we to re- 
prove him at the risk of incurring his wrath? Shall we not fail, 
materially fail, if from merely personal apprehensions, we do not 
faithfully apply what the scriptures term " the wounds of a friend f* 
A third is poor and needy, sick and diseased. Can you calculate 
precisely the extent of your required benevolence? Having calcu 
lated, can you give it with cheerfulness, remembering that God only 
loves a cheerful giver? A fourth has been subjected by us to un- 
deserved reproach. Do we always hasten to repair the calumny ? 
Do we heartily regret the injury he has sustained? Do we never 
play the hypocrite in our professions of sorrow for his wrongs f 
And so I might proceed through an almost infinite variety of cases, 
all depending upon this one command, " Thou shalt love thy neigh 
hour as thyself," and many of them demanding the strictest atten- 
tion every day of our lives, in order to convince you, that the moral 
duties of religion are far from being very feasible, far from being as 
easily accomplished;, as has been too often fondly imagined. 

I might also remind you of some other positive duties; "Thou- 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
3oul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength "Add t© 
srour faith, virtue? and to virtue, knowledge : and to knowledge** 



384 



temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godli- 
ness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kind- 
ness, charity P " Put off, concerning the former conversation, the 
old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be 
renewed in the spirit of your mind ; and put on the new man which 
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Are all 
these easy to understand, throughout the wide expanse of their ap-^ 
plication? If understood; Are they easy in their fulfilment? I 
have not so learned Christ. I have thought, that for every admo- 
nition to believe, he had a hundred persuasives to virtue, and dis- 
suasives from vice. And to what are we to attribute it, but to the 
prevailing disposition of the sinners of his time, so severely re- 
proved in the words, "Why call ye me> Lord, Lord, and do not the 
things which I say?" Those titles they could give with the utmost 
facility, but how to perform that which was good, they knew not. 
Hard, inconscionably hard, to them was the saying, "If thou wilt 
enter into life, keep the commandments." This was the criterion 
by which his true followers were to be known. And did they fail 
to endure the trial? No loud, enthusiastick, and boisterous cry of 
Lord, Lord, could prevail with him to predict their final entrance 
into the kingdom of heaven. 

On the whole therefore, Brethren, it would evidently appear, from 
the numerous considerations, which have been presented, that it is 
far easier to believe than to obey. It may however be said, that the 
faith referred to is not genuine ; that it is merely historical and 
speculative. But this, so far from answering the argument strong- 
ly confirms it; strongly proves, that no matter what may be the 
ardour, or what the orthodoxy of our professions, they can avail us 
nothing, unless they are accompanied by the more arduous fruits of 
a holy living. " Thou believest that there is one God ; thou doest 
well : the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, Q 
vain man, that faith without works is dead?" Will ye know, O ye 
preachers of the everlasting gospel, that, if from timid counsels, and 
an inclination to obtain a good report among men, ye are found to 
countenance a pernicious errour, by evincing an inordinate attach- 
ment to mere doctrinal discourses, and by refraining from inculca- 
ting those moral and religious duties, which are most difficult to be 
discharged, whether they relate to God or man, Will ye know, that, 
under these circumstances, ye deceive, the hearts of the simple, and 



385 

that the consequences are extremely liable to prove supremely fatal 
to their present and future welfare? 

For my own part, Brethren, so long as I am permitted to enjoy 
the honour of being an ambassador for Christ, this consideration 
will never be absent from my mind. I will use every precaution, 
lest any man's blood should be hereafter required at my hands, 
through an unpardonable failure to preach obedience, as the most 
important and comprehensive feature in the Christian life. I know 
that faith is essential ; that it is imperative. " He that believeth on 
the Son hath everlasting life : and he that believeth not the Son 
shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." I care 
not how strongly, how distinctly, it is enforced. - But in what man- 
ner is it to be secured? You must not speak to me of a surer mode 
than this; through obedience, "If any man will do his will, he 
shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I 
speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own 
glory : but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, 
and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give you the 
law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?" 

What better evidence then can be required of the extreme fallacy 
of extolling faith at the expense of works? The faithful and true 
Witness did not charge those Israelites with disbelief in God. He 
knew, that they believed in him, and in his word. But alas, like 
many modern professors, their faith was barren and unfruitful, and 
he therefore charged them with not keeping the law given by Moses. 
« He that hath an ear, let him hear ;" let him say unto himself, as 
ye are doubtless all prepared to say, " I believe in God the Father 
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his 
only Son our Lord," with all the remaining acknowledgments of 
the creed. But what of this? "What doth it profit, my Brethren, 
.though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith 
save him ?" Verily, verily, I say unto you, that " as the body with- 
out the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Ye must 
"adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." Ye must 
"let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good 
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." The task is 
difficult, so difficult, when compared with simple faith, that I can- 
not but tremble for our common safety ; I cannot but think, that its 
.•non-performance will prove the ruin of myriads, whose belief, re,- 

3 C 



886 



gambling that of the scribes and Pharisees, wouid secure a similar 
commendation from our gracious Redeemer, " All therefore whatsc^ 
ever they bid you observe, that observe and do ; but do not ye after 
their works : for they say, and do not." Notwithstanding its diffi- 
culty, the task then must be executed. God requires it, and our 
final Judge hath said, "Behold I come quickly; and my reward is 
with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be." Oh \ 
that we might be universally prepared to meet him, with joy and 
not with grief; "that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, we 
might live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." 
We should have no cause to regret it here below, and at length 
falling asleep in Jesus, we should in due time become partakers of 
the same joyful resurrection. " Blessed are they, that do his com- 
mandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may 
enter in through the gates into the city," the glorious city of their 
God. Amen. 



SERMON XXXIII. 

REVELATION xiv. 11. 

And^the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, 

THE eternity of that punishment, with which Almighty 
God will hereafter requite the ungodly and the sinner, is the sub- 
ject of the present discourse. Do you ask me, Brethren, why a 
theme so repugnant to the feelings, so diametrically at war with 
the desires and inclinations of the heart, should be selected by the 
Christian minister, and enforced upon the solemn and serious at- 
tention of his audience? I demand of you, in reply : Why the con- 
siderate parent is accustomed to address himself to the hopes and 
fears of his children? Why, at the dawn of paternal authority, 
does he talk of reward and punishment, reward to the obedient, 
punishment to the disobedient? The former is unquestionably 
pleasing and encouraging to the young aspirant, desirous of bask- 
ing in the soft sunshine of a father's love; but the latter, how does 



it chill the gushing tide of filial fondness! What painful appre- 
hensions does it excite in the minds of truant youth returning from 
the pastime of forbidden pleasure ! How many and how great the 
terrors, with which it clothes the paternal brow! Why then resort 
to it? Why venture on an expedient, so harsh and repulsive to the 
smiling features of childhood; so withering and oppressive to the 
gayety of youthful indulgence? You will perhaps tell me in the 
words of scripture, " It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in 
his youth ;" ere he can be supposed to comprehend the evil results 
of early transgression; the certainty with which it blasts the fair 
promise of our blooming spring, and entails upon the winter of our 
age a host of calamities, terrible to contemplate, more terrible to 
endure. 

Yes, Brethren, upon these principles, you would justify threats^ 
you would justify coercion; and you do threaten, you p!o coerce. 
Those of you that are fathers would otherwise seldom realize the 
truth of the psalmist's declaration, " Lo children are a heritage of 
the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are 
in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Hap- 
py is the man that hath his quiver full of them." They would not 
gladden your hearts by their virtues. Theylwould scarcely fail by 
their vices to pierce them through and through with many sorrows. 
By this analogy, easy to understand and difficult to obviate, you are 
therefore put in possession of one of the most prominent of those 
inducements, which are ever inclining Christian ministers to startle 
the ear of conscience with a voice proceeding from the regions of des- 
pair, " I am tormented in this flame." And does it require some 
high authority to excuse our boldness? We gain it in the example 
of St. Paul, " knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade 
men." Nay, we gain it in the example of Christ himself, predict- 
ing the doom of the wicked, in the day of his second coming, to 
judge the world, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
prepared for the devil and his angels." Deprive the pulpit of this 
awful language, and you would deprive it of the most powerful in- 
strument, it wields for the conversion of sinners, Heaven and its 
glories would not prove an adequate substitute : For whether right- 
eous or unrighteous, mankind would in either case enjoy its perpetu- 
al felicity. But when righteousness alone tendeth to life, and un- 
righteousness to death, eternal; when the infallibility of these 



38S 



truths is clearly and unanswerably established, the two passions of 
hope and of fear are alike excited. They constitute the throbbing 
pulses presented to the spiritual physician. Touch the one, and it 
is beguiled by the brightest visions ; the other, and it is alarmed and 
terrified by the most horrid presentiments, that ever fill the human 
mind. 

Imagine however, that, beyond the grave, all was heaven : Who 
would seriously devote himself to the attainment of its already cer- 
tain joys? Imagine, that all was hell : Who would vainly strive to 
avoid its sure perdition? Alas, Brethren, when their combined ap- 
peal too often fails to search the spirit, and improve the heart, it is 
easy to anticipate the general depravity consequent upon the expul 
sion of either from the sacred records. But now, the desire of the soul 
to return to God, who gave it, is materially quickened by an anxiety 
to flee from the wrath' to come. It even requires less fortitude to 
forego the idea of future happiness, than to be reconciled to the 
thought of endless and unutterable wo. It is wise then, in the am- 
bassadors of Christ, to speak openly and freely upon this appalling 
theme. It evinces a love for souls, that is neither neutralized by the 
modified censures of the gay and inconsiderate, nor abashed and 
confounded by the severer rebukes of the scorner. And as to the 
effect; if men will not be won to obedience by the inspiring promis- 
es of the gospel, they are not unfrequently plucked, as brands from 
the burning, by calm and temperate views of the pains and penal- 
ties of eternal death. They maybe fond of sin; but for its wages 
they have no sympathy. They may be content to wear its insig- 
nia upon their foreheads; but to rest not day nor night, to be tho- 
roughly persuaded, that, upon final impenitence, " the smoke of 
their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever;" all this has a won- 
derful tendency " to loose the bands of wickedness;" to prevail with 
them to. cast off its galling chains; and, with new thoughts and new 
desires, to strive earnestly for the new heart and the new spirit, so 
loudly demanded in holy oracles. 

At the very threshold of this argument, I am however met by the 
old, I wish it were universally considered the stale, device, " Ye 
shall not surely die," dressed up, and, if possible, gilded with addi- 
tional art and subtlety. For has the world become too enlightened 
to be as easily duped, as our first parents were, by the smooth and 
honied accents of the Prince of lies? In the room of entire indem- 



380 



miy, the sinner is now more usually cheered and flattered in his 
headlong career, by promises of an eventual termination of the 
punishment to be hereafter inflicted on his soul. The early strata- 
gem of the devil is for the most part rejected, and, following his 
more recent example in the temptation of Christ, the scriptures 
themselves are perverted to the uses of fraud and seduction. They 
are acknowledged to contain denunciations against the wicked, 
imperative and excluding as this, " These shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment." But then everlasting does not mean, ever- 
lasting. Eternity is not, eternity. They are as much limited in 
relation to the future, as when expressly employed in reference to 
the present. Hath God said unto Abraham, " All the land which 
thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever?" In point 
of duration, he means no more, when in our text, he assures the 
wicked, that " the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and 
ever." 

Wretched, miserable sophistry! Suffer yourselves, Brethren, to 
be ensnared by this delusion ; make up your minds to believe, that 
there is no distinction between eternal, everlasting, and forever, as 
applied to time, and the same words, as applied to the period, when 
time shall be no more; and the consequence is, that as it was said 
by the prophet, " the everlasting mountains were scattered, the per- 
petual hills did bow," so may it be said of the everlasting perfec- 
tions of God. No longer, in the usual acceptation, can we speak of 
his eternal power and glory, of his being the everlasting Father, 
and God blessed for ever, even from everlasting to everlasting. In 
the employment of these terms, we have been altogether mistaken 
and deceived. All these divine attributes, this power and this glory, 
this perennial blessedness, this endless duration, ape to be hereafter 
as completely scattered, as " the everlasting mountains were scat- 
tered," and as " the perpetual hills did bow." Will you agree to 
this only fair construction, this ultimate extinction of your Creator, 
your Preserver, your reconciled God and Father in Jesus Christ? 
Can you tolerate the idea of living and of being happy in the spiritu- 
al world, as the sinner professes to live happy in this, without God, 
without the light of his smiles, and the riches of his grace? 

I will even suppose the righteous to be capable of such base in- 
gratitude, and still, there are questions of some moment to be can- 
vassed and determined aright. Where is the warrant for this hap- 



390 



piness? Where is the warrant for imniortality itself? Do you point 
me to the scripture, which asserts that there shall be a trans- 
mission of" the righteous into life eternal?" I present you in the 
$ame verse with the equally explicit declaration made of the unright- 
eous, " These shall go away into everlasting punishment." Where 
then is the distinction? In the original Greek, there i&none. The 
same word is translated by the synonymes, eternal and everlasting. 
So that, if the one is to be pared down and diminished to signify a 
limited period of punishment ; the other must be subjected to a simi- 
lar process, in relation to reward. Happiness will have an end. 
Misery will have an end. Our boasted immortality either becomes 
a farce, or else the impassable gulf must be crossed, and that too, 
by the just as well as the unjust. Their places will be changed, 
and their respective conditions reversed. The miserable will be 
happy, and the happy/ miserable. 

Yes, Brethren, such are the consequences of tampering with the 
oracles of truth ; of moulding them to correspond with the inclina- 
tions of sinners? of refining upon their legitimate construction, so 
that we may retain, through false, delusive hopes, the privilege of 
calling evil, good, and good, evil. I defy any man to prove from 
the bible the abatement of one particle of eternal death, without at 
the same time diminishing the duration of eternal life. And al- 
though the poor sinner, determined on all occasions to pursue the 
phantom pleasure, may little regard the inevitable inference, Where 
are the righteous, prepared to adopt it, prepared to be satisfied with 
a portion of future happiness, that, however long and ravishing, is 
still destined to vanish away, and be no more remembered? There 
are none, no not one. The soul clings to the hope of immortal feli- 
city, as its best sheet-anchor, amid the storms and tempests, which 
crowd upon the voyage of life. It seeks not a fading and perisha- 
ble, but an unfading and imperishable crown. It reposes not upon 
the God of the dead, but upon the God of the quick and eve'rliving 
spirit. 

Nor is this the only objection to the forced interpretations, to 
which I have referred you. If it is possible for us to think of eter- 
nal punishment, it is certainly possible, that the Almighty has or- 
dained it. And if, notwithstanding all that is affirmed to the con- 
trary, it should finally prove to be thus, you will coincide in opinion 
with me. that the knowledge of so important an event ought to have 



'391 



been communicated to the beings exposed to its dreadful retribu- 
tion. Upon this statement, I ask you then, what more precise and 
definite language could be employed, than that which is already 
written? Can you supply God with expressions more significant 
than eternal, everlasting, for ever and ever? I know of none, or if 
there be, you have them in the well known sentence$ three times re- 
peated in Mark, " their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 
Do you think, that our liability to misconstrue is not sufficiently 
guarded against? It is written, "Be not deceived; God is not 
mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For 
he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he 
that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting." 
Do you imagine, that the terrors of the dread unknown should have 
been more strongly contrasted with the idols we are here required 
to abandon 9 You cannot construct a figure equally forcible and 
energetick with this, u If thy hand offend thee, cut it off; — if thy 
foot, — cut it off; — if thine eye, — pluck it out: — it is better for thee 
to enter into life maimed, — halt,— with one eye, — than having two 
hands, — two feet, — two eyes, to be cast into hell-fire.'" Will you 
contend, that some examples should have been given of individuals" 
condemned to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire? " The rich man 
also died, and was buried ; and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in 
torments." He solicits relief, and no relief is granted. Will you 
affirm, that it was merely delayed ? I appeal to the case of Judas, 
of whom it is said, " Wo to that man by whom the Son of man is 
betrayed ! Good were it for that man if he had never been born." A 
declaration utterly inapplicable and unmeaning, provided he is to 
be received up into mansions of unceasing rest and beatitude, after 
a limited period of suffering. 

Before then you renounce the doctrine, that the punishment of 
the wicked in a future state, never terminates ; before you insist, 
that there is hope for the reprobate, and enlargement for the damn- 
ed; let me once more inquire, Can you supply the Almighty with 
verbal expressions, warnings, illustrations, and examples more pre- 
cise and definite than these ? That many persons profess to be wise 
above what is written, I am forced to admit. But let them bring 
forth their strong reasons; let them tax their ingenuity ; let them 
ransack their inventive powers, as long as they please, and they 
will still fail, in strength, in- emphasis, in whatever constitutes pre- 



392 



cision and certainty, to rival the clear and unambiguous terms, in 
which the eternal " wrath of God is revealed from heaven against 
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." 

Be it also remembered, as intimately connected with this idea, 
that if there be no such thing as eternal misery, in the sense for 
which 1 contend ; Why has the God of all grace and goodness, He, 
whose tender mercies are over all his works ; Why has he adopted 
language, so fearfully calculated to mislead and agonize his frail 
dependant creatures? Why did he not rather caution them against 
an impression, so fatal to their peace of mind, by declaring, that he 
was too good to punish, too fond and affectionate to cast away sin- 
ners everlastingly from his presence? He must have known, that 
preachers of the gospel would address themselves, as they are now 
accustomed to do, to the fears of men; that they would frequently 
cause their eyes to weep and their hearts to bleed, as they freely 
expatiated upon unspeakable and perpetual torment. He must have 
known, that many surviving relatives would go mourning all their 
days, from melancholy forebodings of the eternal perdition of those, 
whom they once folded in the arms of fond affection. But if it is 
all a lie, the preposterous invention of fools and bigots; Why did he 
not, in pity and compassion to our race, remove the fruitful source 
of many sorrows, by some such language as this, Beware of men, 
who, while they acknowledge my readiness to pardon the penitent 
and reward the obedient, are still continually announcing, as from 
me, that I will by no means clear the guilty; that the wine of my 
wrath shall be poured out upon them without mixture; that " the 
smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever?" Why did he 
not reprobate them thus, They are false prophets; they lie in wait 
to deceive ; " their throat is an open sepulchre ; with their tongues 
they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips," and 
their " mouth is full of cursing and bitterness?" It would have been 
easy ; it would have been reasonable and merciful ; it would have 
been highly becoming and Godlike. And yet, nothing of the kind 
exists. No one can lay his finger upon a revelation, which, if true, 
would have been so worthy of the benevolence of God; so grateful 
and encouraging to the heart of man. Why then this portentous 
silence, this fatal absence of one consolatory passage, when in the 
apprehension of a vast majority of the pious and holy, there are so 
many to annoy the fears, and destroy the expectations of the wicked 1 



393 



lam at no loss for a reply. I find it early and emphatically re- 
corded in the scriptures, " God is not a man, that he should lie j 
neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and 
fchall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it 
good?" Shall he say, that there is no eternity of suffering, when 
there is? Shall he say to the sinner, that he will not hereafter 
visit him with consuming fire, when he hath already prepared it 
for him, for the devil,, and his angels? No, no, the eternal God is 
not thus inconstant and variable; not so much like a man, "He 
is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and 
repenteth him of the evil;" but then his will and his word never 
change; they are immutable as are his own perfections. He has 
created, and he can destroy, eternally " destroy both body and soul 
in hell." Fear ye therefore him. " Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, 
and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. 
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." 

It may indeed be observed of all those, who apply the flattering 
unction of universal salvation to their souls, that they are much 
more inclined to confide in their own conceptions of the character 
of God; in those general impressions, which they have formed of 
his matchless goodness and benignity, than in the more detailed and 
expanded light, which in the holy scriptures is thrown around him, 
and that preserves unbroken the entire unity and perfection of all 
his attributes; his purity, his holiness, his justice, as well as his 
love, his mercy, his compassion. And could I resort to the same 
mode of unraveling his designs; could I think it becoming a poor 
worm of the dust to hold up to view one moiety of his character, 
and at the same time industriously, not to say perversely, conceal 
the other, I should meet with no difficulty in rushing to the same 
conclusion. The divine mercy I would laud to the skies. The di- 
vine justice I would consign to be managed by those, who, in their 
efforts to sustain it, are not unfrequently branded with the epithet 
of fanaticks. 

I will go farther. I will freely confess, that, so far as reason is 
concerned, so far as that light of nature which through all her 
works declares the glory and the goodness of God, nothing would 
appear so manifestly absurd, and even derogatory to him, as the 
doctrine of everlasting misery. It is not visible in the pleasant 
•sunshine, in the refreshing shower, in the variegated tints, which 

3 D 



mi 



sparkle from cloud to cloud, and at length converge into a bow of 
promise. It is not inscribed upon the innocent face of nature, its 
fertile bosom and redundant harvest. It is not engraved upon the 
tablets of the mind, the integuments of the heart, or the substance 
of the soul. All these things do rather clearly testify, that God is 
love ; that he is our Maker and Preserver, our constant Friend and 
heavenly Father, Restricted to them, I would not hesitate to as- 
sert, that let our conduct be what it might, good, bad, or indifferent, 
we should still experience in every change from life to death, and 
from world to world, that he had not " forgotten to be gracious," nor 
Mn anger shut up his tender mercies." 

Even now, with all the light which radiates from the sacred vol- 
ume, I do not comprehend why it is, that the sius of a few short 
years, committed in perfect accordance with our natural desires 
and infirmities, should be recompensed with everlasting inflictions. 
It does not correspond with my sense of justice. It does not har- 
monize with those sentiments of affection and sympathy, which I 
delight to indulge towards my fellow travellers in the pilgrimage of 
life. Abstractly considered, it has nothing in it to coincide with 
my reason, to charm my eyes, or to captivate my heart. And yet, 
I firmly believe it. I firmly believe it to be just, and right, and 
equitable. Why? Because I yield a hearty assent to the scriptural 
admonition, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not 
unto thine own understanding:" Because, having investigated and 
credited the evidence in favour of the truth of inspiration, I there 
find the sentence of eternal reprobation, so clearly revealed against 
the impenitent sinner, that he, who runs may read ; so clearly, that 
it would only corroborate my faith, if the divine hand were at this 
very moment to trace it out, in letters of living light, upon the walls 
of this edifice. 

Away then with all scruples about justice, and right, and equity. 
If these qualities do not pertain to God, where are we to find them? 
If we are determined to believe no more than what we are able to 
comprehend, we shall never believe in this world; we must wait 
until conviction shall have been wrought through the medium of 
actual perception. For me it is enough, that God conveys an in- 
telligible proposition, and to this I bow, as confident that it is in 
perfect unison with all his attributes, as if I perfectly understood 
his nature, and spied out all his ways. Such is that faith in him, 
which I wish every hearer of mine to cherish. You may tell me. 



295 



that the punishment of death eternal is contrary to our received 
impressions of the divine love. I agree to it. He is " not willing 
that any should perish." You may also tell me, that it is contrary 
to our own sense of justice, and consequently that it must be to 
his. Bat here, one w-ord from him outweighs in my mind all the 
arguments, which human ingenuity ever has or ever will devise. 
And be the same determination yours. If you credit the scriptures 
in one particular, credit them in all. If you discredit them in one, 
you may as well discredit them in all. You can no longer claim 
to receive them as a lamp to your feet, and a light to your paths. 
But do they speak of a future state of rewards and punishments? 
Do they explicitly announce of those rewards and punishments, 
that they are unchangeable in their nature, and ceaseless in their 
duration? O! that ye might to the disclosure submit your under- 
standings with reverence: that ye might believe with all your heart, 
and so regulate your lives and conduct by its intimations, as never 
to learn experimentally what a fearful thing it is to fall into the 
hands of the living God: into his hands, who will so thresh the 
ungodly in his anger, so vex them with his fiery indignation, that 
u the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." 

Most persons upon this subject have indeed very strange and 
confused thoughts. They hear of fire, and associate with it the 
idea of actual combustion; of the worm that never dies, and im- 
agine it to forewarn them of some literal banquet upon the naked 
soul. But neither they, nor you, nor any human being, can pre- 
tend to describe the character or the degree of suffering, whicli 
they are employed to represent. Of such and many other images, 
alike terrifiek and forbidding, it is sufficient, that they indicate the 
extremity of torment, torment to the body, and torment to the soul. 
Who then among us are willing to endure them? Who are willing 
to enter into that dismal receptacle of the enemies of the cross of 
Christ, where hope, that lights up all other abodes, is never to dawn 
upon them ; where legions of infernal spirits with the arch-fiend at 
their head, are to be the sole companions to comfort them, in the 
severity of their anguish; where the poor, depairing soul shall rave 
round the walls of the fathomless abyss, seeking rest and finding 
none; where, in complicated agony and wo, it shall die a thousand 
times ten thousand, yea, an eternity of deaths? Ah! who among us 
are willing to endure them, to enter upon this scene of terror and 
amazement? Are they, the young, the blooming, and the gay? 



Where will then be that zest for pleasure, which now " sits high 
smiling in the conscious eye," or riots through the veins, or palpi- 
tates within the heart? — Are they, the mature, the hale, and strong; 
the fathers and the mothers of the land? Where will ye find the balmy 
zephyr and the cool retreat, the place for social intercourse, for 
connubial love, for parental tenderness ?— Are they, the old, the de- 
crepit, and infirm? What gentle filial hand shall smooth the silver 
locks, or spread the downy bed ? What kind and soothing voice 
shall whisper words of peace and comfort in the anguished ear, or 
cheer them through the long, long remnant of eternity ?— - Are they 
sinners of every class and sex? Where are "the lust of the flesh, 
and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life?" Where, baser vice 
and more vulgar profligacy? Where, the gibes and scoffs of infi- 
delity? Where, the blessed Saviour and the free, unrestricted over- 
tures, with which this gentle Shepherd would have once allured the 
wandering sheep into his spiritual fold, 

Alas, Brethren, all these things are forever gone, forever fled. 
They are not permitted to pass the confines of hell. They may be 
sought for and enjoyed throughout the days of the Son of man. 
But for those secluded within the realms of darkness, there is no 
voice to sooth, no eye to pity, no arm to save ; there is naught, save 
"weeping, — and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.'" Awake then 
ere it be too late, awake thou that sleepest on the brink of this tre- 
mendous gulf, and Christ shall give thee light and life, liberty and 
salvation, forevermore. On the exercise of a sincere and worthy 
repentance, he will wash away your sins in thclaver of his atoning 
blood. On the profession of a true and lively faith, he will fold you 
within the embraces of his sheltering arms. On the practice of a 
cheerful and holy obedience, he will be " able to keep you from 
falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory 
with exceeding joy." Be ye therefore penitent, and faithful, and 
obedient. " Cist away from you all your transgressions, whereby 
ye have transgressed; and make }'ou anew heart and a new spirit: 
for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" So shall ye escape "the 
smoke of their torment," which "ascendeth up for ever and ever." 
" So an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the 
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Amen. 



THE END 



SWT 



INDEX 

•TO THE TWENTY SERMONS UPON THE CHURCH, 



Abbot, archbishop, his testimony in relation to Calvin, page 81. 

Analogy, between the Jewish and Christian Churches, 18. 

Apostles, the office of, still exists, 31 — argument continued, 36 — 
case of Matthias, 38 — of Barnabas and Epaphroditus, 39-— of 
Timothy, 40 and 57— of Titus, 42 and 57. 

Articles of the Church examined, 174 — adopted in the United 
States, 208. 

Atonement of Christ, the extent of, 177. 

Baptism, the mode of, 91 — infant, 95. 

Beeeher's opinion of revivals and conversions, 206. 

Bible, Episcopalians translated the version in common use, 171— 
with their standing as writers, 173. 

Bishop and Presbyter, promiscuous use of the titles in the scriptures 
accounted for, with Theodoret's testimony, 58. 

Bishops, the successors of the Apostles in office, 58 and 63 — their 
succession examined, and objections answered, 78. 

Blessing of God, claimed by the dissenters, and the subject examin- 
ed, 225 — in relation to Germany and Geneva, with the remark of 
Rousseau, and the testimony of Dr. Raffles, 227 — England, with 
the statement of Edwards, 228 — the puritans of New-England, 
230. 

Church, definition of, 13 — cannot be constituted by human power, 

14 — Christian founded, 15 — doctrine of our own, 17 — Jewish, 

a type of the Christian, 19. 
Communion, our views of admission to its privileges, 114 — extract 

from Mason, 115. 
Confirmation or laying on of hands, sermon upon, 103. 
Conversion, subject examined, 203 — extract from Mason, 205— 

from Beecher, 206. 
peacons, the third rank in the ministry, 26, 



398 



Dissentions among Christians, evil consequences of, 234— argu- 
ment of the skeptick and others, upon this subject, refuted, 237. 

Episcopacy, views of the Church upon, 17— argument in its favour 
from the admission of its enemies, 66— no ancient record left of 
its being an usurpation, 67. 

Episcopalian and Presbyterian, real distinction between, with the 
numbers on either side, 23 a 

Extemporaneous prayers, origin of, in England, 153 — are forms, 162, 

External ceremonies in publick worship, sermon upon, 120. 

Faith and works, doctrine of the Church upon, 199. 

Fathers of the Church, their testimony upon episcopacy, 49— 
Ignatius, 50 — Polycarp, 53 — Irenseus, Clemens Alexandrinus. 
Tertullian and Origen, 55 — Cyprian and Jerome, 56 — other fath- 
ers, 57 — consequences of rejecting their testimony, 60. 

Female exhibitions in rmblick, 9, 

Forms of prayer, scriptural evidence of their use, 135 — practice of 
Christ, 140 — of the Apostles, 146— of the primitive Christians, 
151 — Calvin's opinion, 153 — advantages of liturgies over extem- 
poraneous prayers, sermon upon, 157. 

Hades, or place of departed spirits, sermon upon, 209. 

Hymn book and prayer book, 149. 

Hymns, no objection with dissenters to precomposed, 164. 

Ignatius, the testimony of, upon episcopacy, 50 and 64. 

Inquiry, the present is the age of, 249. 

Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, their case, with Uzzah's, 45. 

Mason, extract from, on Church membership, 115— on revivals and 

conversions, 205. 
Methodist Church, its origin and pretensions to episcopacy, 84. 
Necessity, the reformer's plea for schism, examined, 83. 
Original sin, doctrine of, 175. 
Prayer book and hymn book, 149. 

Prayer and praise, harmony between precomposed forms of, 16& 
Predestination, opinion of Calvin, Coles, and Rowland Hill, 179 — 
of Mason and others, 180 — of Erasmus and Bishop Seabury, 181 
— subject continued, 183 — relates to character and not to per- 
son, 184 — the seve nteenth article of the Church, 185— it differs 
from foreknowledge, with the case of David at Keilah, 187 — of 
Jacob and Esau, 189— misconception upon the subject, 192. 
.Presbyterian and episcopalian, distinction between, 23. 



399 



Presbyterianism, origin of, with the opinion of Calvin, 80 — of Lu- 
ther, Melancthon, Beza, and Bucer, 82 — -of the diet at Worms, 
83 — ends in Unitarianism, subject examined at large, 225 — ad-i 
verted to, 252 and 255. 

Presbyters, the second rank in the ministry, 30. 

Reformers in England, 171. 

Regeneration, doctrine of the Church upon, 195. 

Revivals in religion, 203. 

Roman Catholick, not the mother Church, 71 — argument founded 
on this presumption answered, 72 — subject continued, 76. 

Schism, Christ's declaration upon, 4 — Paul's, 5 — evil effects of, ex- 
posed throughout the discourses, particularly in the three last 
of the series. 

Sectarians do not agree among themselves wherein the Church is 
wrong, 223. 

Succession of bishops, subject examined and objections answer- 
ed, 78. 

Syrian Church in India, 69 and 152. 

Theodoret's account of the Apostolick succession, 58 and 65. 
Union and harmony amongst Christians desirable, 3— want of them 

with the dissenters, 222. 
Unitarianism in Germany and Geneva, 227 — in England, 230— 

barriers against its introduction into the Church. 231.. 
Wesley, disclaims the episcopal character, 86. 
Worldly wisdom among Christians, 8. 



ERRATUM, 

Page G, for Minister read Munzer. The name is not tised m a reproachful 
sense. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2006 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 



